


BB/Rae Week

by PaintingWithDarkness



Category: Teen Titans (Animated Series), Teen Titans - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, BB/Rae Week, Crushing, Cute, Dreaming, Engagement, F/M, Fighting, First Date, First Kiss, Fluff, Inner Demons, Kissing, Making Out, Nightmares, Raven’s Emoticlones, Romance, Sorry Not Sorry, and also some heavy make out scenes, but no actual sex, getting married, parenting, rated for language, there are some illusions to sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-06-01 06:03:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 37,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15136718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PaintingWithDarkness/pseuds/PaintingWithDarkness
Summary: Fulfilled BB/Rae Week Prompts, as posted on Tumblr every year. Will continue to add to this as more prompts are posted.





	1. Arguing: Day 1 (2014)

**Author's Note:**

> I know that I'm pretty late with a lot of these prompts, but as a BB/Rae fan, I couldn't resist the urge to fulfill them. For those of you who don't know about BB/Rae week, 7 prompts are posted once a year on Tumblr for fanfiction writers to fulfill. During that week, one prompt is addressed each day. Being that I'm years behind in this trend myself, I won't be posting to this fic daily (sorry) but I should have a prompt filled each week, and will update this regularly until I'm caught up. 
> 
> For now, I've started filling the prompts from 2014 (when this trend began) and will finish with those from this year. 
> 
> It is possible that I may update this fic in the future when the prompts for 2019 come out and for years in the future. But until then, I hope that you guys will enjoy what I've written for the 2014-2018 prompts.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> If Heaven is a place for only good people, where will Raven, who is part demon, end up in the afterlife?

“Raven, just accept that this is the one time you are wrong about something, okay?!” Beast Boy yelled angrily, gripping his girlfriend by the shoulders.

  
She crossed her arms stubbornly. “There’s nothing you can do about it, Garfield. It’s inevitable.”

  
Beast Boy frowned, grabbing the empath’s face in his hands and forcing her to look him in the eyes. “You are _not_ going to Hell,” he pronounced each syllable carefully and slowly, as if speaking to a young child.

  
Raven shook herself from his grasp and turned away from him. She stalked to the other side of the room, crossing her arms in front of her chest and pulling her cloak tighter around her frame. “I’m half-demon, Beast Boy.”

  
Beast Boy gave an incredulous scoff. “That has nothing to do with it.”

  
Raven whirled in his direction, tears burning in her eyes as she threw her hands up. “It has everything to do with it!” She yelled furiously, “Can’t you see? I’m destined to go to Hell. My father is Satan’s right-hand man! There’s no place in Heaven for me, Garfield. I’ll die and then rot in Hell forever with my evil father.”

  
Tears began to slide down her cheeks and Raven angrily wiped them away, beginning to pace. The changeling took a step forward and reached out to her, trying to comfort her, but she merely brushed by him, not acknowledging his gesture.

  
“Demons have no place in Heaven. Heaven is for good people who serve the Lord; not for evil devil-spawn like me.” Raven cast her gaze to the carpet beneath her feet, hugging her arms close to her body.

  
Beast Boy grew indignant. “Take that back, right now,” he growled, grabbing her arm. The demoness looked at him, lips parted for a contradiction. “Take it back,” he demanded, before she could say anything.

  
Raven tried to pull herself free of his tight grip, but her efforts were futile. He was much stronger than her without their powers, and with the way she was worked up, she knew using them would only succeed in injuring one, or both of them, or destroying one or more of her possessions.

  
“Garfield…” She continued to struggle, but his grip on her only tightened.

  
“You are not evil,” he said, absolutely resolute.

  
“Garfield…” Raven turned her gaze away from his intense green stare. She couldn't stand the candor look in his eyes. She knew he had to be lying. Of course, she was evil. There was no other word to describe her. Her father was a demon. She was a demon. Demons are evil. How could he not understand that? And why did it bother her so much that he thought otherwise?

  
Maybe it was because she had already made peace- or as close to it as she could get- with her fate. She had been destined to bring destruction to the world since the day of her birth. _A gem born of evil’s fire._ She had been born from evil; from the evil fires of Hell. How did that saying go? ‘From where you have come, you shall return’? Why would it not apply to her?

  
She turned her eyes back towards her boyfriend, still gripping her arm in his tight hold. Her eyes were pleading. She needed him to understand.

  
“You are not evil,” he said, once he saw the look on her face. He was determined to get her to agree with him. “Say it, Raven: ‘I am not evil.’”

  
She continued to struggle against him. Why was he arguing with her over this?

  
“You’ve saved this city and the world numerous times. You’ve saved thousands of lives. You are not evil, Raven.” He looked down into her amethyst eyes with his soft jade orbs, completely devoid of any signs that he was being untruthful with her.

  
Raven wavered for a moment. “I-I…”

  
Beast Boy released his hold on her, using his now free hand to tilt her chin up so that she couldn't turn away from his gentle gaze. “You are not evil,” he repeated slowly.

  
Raven’s resolve broke. “I-I am not evil.”

  
Beast Boy smiled at her, resting his forehead against her own, and wrapping his arms around her. Raven squeezed her eyes shut, refusing to return the embrace. “I may not be evil,” she whispered, “but I’m still half-demon.”

She ripped away from him, crossing to the other side of the room and turning her back.

  
Tears fell from her stinging eyes, causing her shoulders to shake. She pulled her cloak tighter around her petite frame, trying to hide her trembling body from him, but Beast Boy had already seen. He crossed the room, wrapping his arms around her again, allowing her to bury her tear-soaked face in his chest as she wept. He comfortingly ran his palm up and down her back, trying to console her and calm her down. He had noticed that some of the decorations in her room had begun floating, encased in her black energy, and he did not want her to become more upset upon breaking one of them.

  
“Raven, none of that matters,” Beast Boy said, “God loves you, and you do have a place in Heaven. He knows that you’re a good person. Genetics don’t matter. Not for half-animals like me, and not for half-demons like you. It’s about what you believe in your heart, Rae.”

  
Raven’s watery orbs met his soft emerald eyes as he gently swept the stray lavender locks from her face and tucked them behind her ear.

  
“How can God love me? I became Trigon’s portal. I single-handedly brought evil’s incarnate to Earth. I almost annihilated an entire planet. And while I was dead- while my father was here, ruining our home- I was stuck in Hell, hopeless, watching as he destroyed everything I’ve ever cared about. Who’s to say I won’t go back to Hell the next time I die?”

  
Beast Boy gave her a small smile.

“Raven, God forgives people for their mistakes.”

Raven looked at him, a hint of doubt still in her eyes.

  
“He loves you, Raven. Just like I do.”

Beast Boy gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

  
Raven blushed. “We’re really going to Heaven?”

  
Beast Boy nodded the affirmative.

“Together.”


	2. Alone: Day 2 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven has never been afraid of solitude, but there's one person who she can't live without.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second prompt for 2014's BB/Rae week. Still working on catching up, but hope you guys will enjoy this even though it's a little overdue.

For Raven, being alone was never something she had feared. Ever since her youth, she had been independent; her mother distant, and her father an evil interdimensional demon. The empath had learned a lot at a young age and had experienced things that would give most full-grown men nightmares without batting an eyelash. She carried a burden that no child should ever have had to shoulder at such an innocent, young age and as a result, had become mature and wise beyond her years, as well as inhumanly reserved and cold. It was something that she had never even realized had happened to her, and she had come to terms with her fate, serving out her days quietly, knowing that she would someday bring destruction to whichever planet she inhabited.

  
She preferred being alone. No people meant no emotions and no emotions meant she had control. Control had always seemed to be an issue for the sorceress. Without control, her powers came with consequences, that, if left unchecked, would cause her to destroy everything within a ten-mile radius. That was why she had to repress her emotions: for the sake of others.

  
She had been hesitant to join the Teen Titans because of this. When she had first come to Earth, she’d been overwhelmed by the multitude of emotions swirling around her. The strange alien had brought on an astounding amount of anger and the masked green teenager seemed to have enough energy to light up the whole city. Never before had she felt such strong emotions. The people of Azarath had rather simple emotions. It had been a real challenge to get used to the strong feelings her teammates harbored, and even though she had struggled, she had eventually learned.

  
Robin was intelligent and insightful. Raven found that she actually had more in common with the ex-sidekick than she had originally thought. It was easy to trust him. His emotions were rather simple and he was easy to be around. Robin was friendly, and their relationship had budded off of a mutual respect for one another. He was a comfort, and Raven was relieved to discover that her relationship with him was much like the ones she had created with her mentors in Azarath.

  
Cyborg was much the same. To Raven, the android played a bigger brother role, there to console her and give encouragement in times of self-doubt. The empath had desperately needed someone like Cyborg in her life. Without the encouragement, she would have constantly put herself down, and her self-esteem would have plummeted. However, with constant morale-builders supplied by the half-robot, Raven had become more comfortable in her own skin and had come to respect her powers and abilities, using them for something good. She had become more willing to share her opinions and give advice to her teammates- something she had not been accustomed to in Azarath.

  
Despite her now good relations with Starfire, it had been a challenge to get used to the alien’s sporadic and strong changes of emotion. At first, Raven had been wary to get too close. Every time the Tamaranian had a mood swing, Raven found herself struggling to maintain control. Starfire’s over-the-top exuberance, tirades of anger and sob-fests were enough to give a normal person a headache, let alone someone with empathic abilities. It had taken some time, but eventually, Raven had learned to read the alien without becoming too overwhelmed. The amount of control Raven had come to maintain around Starfire would always be something Raven would pride herself in. She was secretly grateful to the alien princess, as learning that level of control had made her more powerful than she had ever been, and probably would not have been something she could have learned if she had not met Starfire in the first place.

  
Then, there was Beast Boy. In comparison, learning to control her powers around Starfire had been a walk in the park. The changeling had absolutely annoyed her to no end. His non-stop corny jokes and moronic comments had irritated her to immeasurable levels. It was truly shocking that she hadn’t killed him for his stupidity when they were younger. It had taken heaps of self-restraint to not lash out at the younger boy every time he felt the need to grace her with his worthless antics and tomfoolery. Because of this, their relationship had been a tolerable one at best. The constant quarrelling and fighting had always kept them from becoming more than just acquaintances.

  
Then there were his moments of compassion. Every once in awhile, the changeling had managed to surprise her with a kind or thoughtful gesture. In fact, he may have even been the one responsible for strengthening their friendship through said gestures. When he had broken into her mind using her meditation mirror, Raven had been furious. Both the changeling and Cyborg had invaded the one place she thought would be forever private to her and only her. They had met sides of her that she had never wanted to display in front of anyone. They had seen her at her weakest and most vulnerable, yet Raven hadn’t been able to stay mad at Beast Boy. He had stayed behind in her mind despite the danger to help her battle her inner-rage and whether Raven wanted to admit it or not, Beast Boy had gotten her to express emotion. He’d gotten Happy to laugh and smile- something Raven rarely (if ever) did- and he’d managed to get Timid to open up and get rid of some of the guilt she had been carrying around since joining the Titans. In a way, his trip into her head actually may have done more good than harm.

  
There had also been the chicken. Sure it was tacky, and he probably hadn’t meant anything by it, but Raven felt honored that Beast Boy had spent his time winning a prize for her. No one had ever gone out of their way to do something nice for her before. Secretly, she had even found the gift to be quite cute (despite her severe allergies for the creatures in real life). After defeating Blackfire, the empath had returned to the carnival and retrieved her prize, stuffing it into a well-hidden spot in the back of her closet once returning back to the Tower.

  
Malchior. That was a name she never wanted to hear again. The nasty, conniving scumbag of a dragon had tricked her into befriending him, into… loving him. Then he had taken everything from her: her trust, her soul and her heart- and shattered them like fragile pieces of glass. Raven had never felt like more of a fool. She had been tricked into performing dark magic- something she had forbidden herself from even thinking about because of her heritage. She had been stupid to even consider it, let alone perform the spells. And for what? Love? Such a word had been foreign to her, yet Malchior had somehow succeeded in turning all of her views around with a few persuasive words and cunning. Raven had been disgusted with herself. But Beast Boy had shown up just in time to make everything better again. He had told her she wasn’t alone. That he understood what she was going through because he had been through it himself. He had been her savior. Raven had felt so relieved in that moment; that was the nicest thing someone had ever done for her. Beast Boy had sympathized with her; had shared her pain, and for that, she could never repay him.

  
The thing that had shocked her the most- the thing that she would never forget- was his lucky penny. His gesture had been so casual- something that Raven would never think about twice if the circumstances had been any different. He had just run up to her, placing that warm metal circle in her hand, but at the time, it had felt like more than just a penny. It had felt like he’d just handed her a million dollars. To know that he genuinely cared that much about her well-being, to be the only one that had offered her any parting words; it was touching. When Raven submitted to her father’s will, she knew she was letting him down. The last thing she had remembered, right as her soul left her body, were his words, “For luck.” And at that moment, she couldn’t have been any luckier to have a friend like him.

  
When the end of the world had come, she was all alone. That was the first time Raven could ever remember being afraid of solitude. Her powers had been stolen from her, along with her age and maturity. She had been just a kid. When Robin had found her, she had to admit, she was a little disappointed. She was relieved that someone had found her, yes, more than relieved actually, but as Robin carried her out of the pits of Hell, she couldn't help wishing that it had been a certain green shapeshifter instead. He was the one who had given her hope when there was none. He was the one who had assured her that she wasn’t alone. And in that moment, she hadn’t felt anything but.

  
That was when she had realized the depth of her affections towards Beast Boy. In her greatest moment of weakness, she hadn’t been seeking anyone. She had wanted him at her side. She had been afraid to admit it, but she had fallen for the impish green boy. He had always been there for her and she found herself missing him in his times of absence. His compassionate and loving side had won out over all of the annoyances and she had unknowingly given her heart to him.

  
To know that he had returned her feelings had filled her with an unmeasurable amount of relief, happiness and joy. He was her savior, her best friend, her protector, and now he had the ability to become her boyfriend and lover too. He would always be there for her and she had no reason to fear being alone.

  
But nothing in her life was ever perfect. Things were bound to hit bumps and that was why she was scared.

  
As she stared down at his comatose body, she couldn’t help crying. He looked so frail, barely hanging onto life. His hand did not squeeze back when she took his cold fingers between hers. He did not kiss her when she brushed her lips against his. He didn’t purr when she ran her hands through his messy green locks. As her tears dripped down onto his cheeks, he did not respond.

  
Raven was scared of losing him; of being alone. ‘Please don’t leave me,’ she thought, ‘Please don’t leave me alone.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3 will be up next Monday: Inner Demons.


	3. Inner Demons: Day 3 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone has inner demons, but Raven's are like no others.

“Raven! Stop please!” Beast Boy panted as the red-cloaked girl continued to approach. The battered green teenager tried to pull himself up to his feet and run from his pursuer, but his bloodied and broken condition kept him from doing so.

  
“Where’s the fun in that?” The demonic girl laughed darkly. Her four red eyes gleamed in the darkness surrounding them, casting a crimson glow across the rest of her features. Her normally short-trimmed violet locks were long and tangled, hanging down to her mid-back and the leotard beneath her maroon cloak was torn, exposing her midriff and arms, similar to the way Slade had exposed her the last time this had happened. It was the end of the world, and this time, Trigon had succeeded.

  
Jump City lay in ruins, the people turned to stone, forever frozen in place with looks of horror about their visages. Dilapidated buildings burned bright with orange flames, dark smoke licking the red clouds above. Thunder and lightning crashed in the distance, illuminating the vast destruction with their sudden bursts of light. The bay surrounding the city had been turned to lava, hissing as chunks of brimstone and obsidian continued to crumble from the islands of floating land strewn about the churning pit.

  
Some of Trigon’s faithful followers- a group of cultists from Earth- had performed a powerful ritual allowing the evil incarnation to come to this dimension and bring mass annihilation with him. There were no survivors apart from Trigon, his demons, Raven and Beast Boy. Their teammates had been killed; turned to stone with the rest. The changeling and empath had been spared, only because a worse fate awaited them.

  
Trigon was punishing his unfaithful daughter and her foolish lover for their treachery against him. He had released their inner demons and set them against their real counterparts; Raven’s rage, malice, hatred, anger, jealousy, and lust against Beast Boy, and his primal side, fury, violence, brashness, arrogance and passion against Raven. Trigon had used their love for one another against them and it was now becoming their downfall.

  
Beast Boy stumbled as his legs shook, carrying him across the rocky terrain in a vain attempt to escape the demon pursuing him. He no longer had the energy to shapeshift, having not eaten since the beginning of The End. He had lost track of time. The End could have come weeks, months or even years ago, but the weak boy had no way of telling. His uniform was shredded, the purple and black fabric hanging on by threads. His shoes and belt had been lost long ago, the soles of his green feet now black from the ground and scraped raw and bloody from the numerous rocks he had stepped on. Scratches and bruises littered his body, along with blisters from the sweltering heat of the new atmosphere. His muscles screamed in protest with every movement. He hadn’t slept since The End either, bags hanging under dull, forest-green eyes. They were devoid of all light and the joy they had once held, only dark and hard, shadows roiling beneath the surface.

  
Eventually he ran out of strength, his legs giving out and sending him to the ground in a sweaty heap. His breathing was laborious, the dry air rattling in his lungs and wheezing as he exhaled. He tried desperately to pull himself up, but could not, his mind overloaded with the pain of his hunger, sleep deprivation and screaming muscles.

  
Soon, Raven’s demon caught up. She approached him slowly, swinging her voluptuous hips, a smoldering smirk on her lips. The demoness stopped less than a foot away from the defeated hero, reaching forward and grasping a fistfull of his dirtied verdant locks and yanking his head up to look at her. Beast Boy had to bite his tongue to keep from yelping.

  
“You know, Beastie,” she purred, “you shouldn’t try to run. I always find you. And now,” a sadistic grin replaced the sexy smirk, “I have to punish you.”

  
Raven’s duplicitous double released her grip on the changeling’s hair, reeling back her arm and delivering a harsh slap to the boy’s face, the sound resonating across the desolate landscape. Beast Boy cried out, his hand coming up to cup his stinging cheek. The demoness shook her head.

  
She flicked her hand, encasing Beast Boy’s arms in a dark aura, spreading them out to his sides. She used her powers to stand the teen on his feet, allowing her more room to take out her anger. She delivered a punch to the changeling’s gut, forcing him to hunch over and dry heave, but there was nothing for his empty stomach to purge. She followed it with a powerful uppercut, snapping Beast Boy’s head back up and making him see spots in his vision. Finally, she used her powers to twist his arm painfully behind his back, bringing tears to the dark green orbs.

  
“Now Gar,” the demoness said testily, “have we learned our lesson?”

  
The green teenager only whimpered in response, afraid that Raven’s evil incarnate would dislocate his arm.

  
“I said,” the double hissed, “did you learn your lesson?” She grabbed a fistfull of the changeling’s verdant hair, yanking his head up, forcing him to look her in the eyes.

  
“Yes!” he squealed, tears beginning to fall down his face from the pain.

  
“Good.” The duplicitous double released both her physical and magical holds on him, causing Beast Boy to thump to the ground on his knees.

  
Raven’s dark side pressed her hands into his shoulders, forcing him onto his back. She then swiftly straddled her counterpart’s lover and proceeded to press her hot lips to his, running her hands up and down his body.

  
Beast Boy refused to kiss back, sensing none of the love he had felt from the original Raven during their more private moments together. He tried in earnest to push the demoness off of him, but it was no use. He was too weak and powerless. All he could do was resist.

  
The crimson-cloaked demoness continued to torture him, running her hands through his hair and fondling his ears, which the original Raven knew he loved. She took his lower lip between her pointed teeth, biting until she drew blood. Beast Boy gasped in pain, his lips parting slightly, allowing the enchantress to force her forked tongue into his mouth.

  
As he endured his torture, he could only think about the heinous things his own personal demon was doing to his lover.

* * *

 

“Garfield, I’m so sorry!” Raven sobbed.

  
Tears fell down the empath’s face as she was slammed against the wall of a dilapidated building. Beast Boy’s evil counterpart had caught her trying to hide from him in the middle of the city. She had been running from him since the beginning of The End and had needed somewhere to hide to build back her energy. Unfortunately, she hadn’t been given much of a reprieve, only managing to escape her torturer for a few precious minutes.

  
As the demon came closer, Raven squeezed her eyes closed, trembling in his presence.

  
“Now Raven,” he growled huskily, “there’s no reason to hide from me.”

  
Raven shrunk into herself, squeezing her eyes shut tighter.

  
“Look at me,” Beast Boy’s evil double commanded. “Look at me!” He slammed her against the wall again when she failed to comply.

  
Raven slowly looked up to her lover’s animalistic side, flinching as she did so.

The evil changeling chuckled. "So beautiful and smart,” he purred, tracing her jawline with a finger. “Such a shame.”

  
“A s-shame what?” Raven’s voice quavered. Her shadow-filled amethyst eyes rose to meet his malicious rubies.

  
“A shame,” he unclasped the empath’s tattered cloak, tearing it away from her body and tossing it across the alley, “that I have to hurt such a gorgeous girl.”

  
The changeling’s evil double slowly removed the remains of Raven’s shredded leotard from her body, along with her undergarments, leaving her fully exposed to him. Her skin was littered with abrasions, contusions, blisters, scratches and hickeys from her last encounters with her lover’s inner-demon. Her hair was disheveled, the violet locks tangled and stingy with sweat.

  
Raven trembled, tears leaking from her eyes as she desperately tried to cover her more private areas. She could sense none of the love she had felt with the original Garfield reflected in this demon’s glittering ruby eyes. He only harbored lust in its most primal form and he had no desires to hide it.

  
The demon stepped forward, seizing Raven’s skinny wrists within one of his hands and pinned them against the wall above her head. His jewel-like eyes traveled over her body, a low growl resonating in his chest as they lingered on her chest and other more private areas.

  
Raven tried to free her hands from his grip, but it was futile. He was superior to her in strength. Even with her powers, she wouldn’t have been able to free herself. They had been stolen from her in Trigon’s return to the earth. Physically, Garfield had always been stronger than her, and his demon showed no mercy.

  
Raven whimpered as the demon’s free hand made contact with her bare skin, beginning to trace patterns over her dirty pale stomach and breasts. She tried to show him that she wasn’t afraid of him, steeling her eyes and expression, but the tears running down her face and the trembling of her body betrayed her.

  
It wasn’t long before the evil Beast Boy’s claws came into play, leaving long, red gashes across the empath’s skin. He traced her arms, stomach and legs, bloody trails left in their wake. His head dipped, lips, tongue and teeth working to create more marks upon her skin.

  
Raven whimpered as the marks continued to mar her body. The old Garfield had never treated her like this. He always held her lovingly, showing her how much she meant to him. She couldn’t help thinking about him now and how he could have hidden such a dark part of his soul away from her. This wasn’t the Garfield she knew. The Gar she knew was being tortured too, by her own inner-demon.

  
Tears traced their way down her face, creating trails in the dirt on her cheeks. As her lover’s demon proceeded to abuse her, Raven whimpered apologies to the original version of Garfield, simply asking herself, ‘How could this have happened?’

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: First Date (Day 4 2014)


	4. First Date: Day 4 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's not a traditional first date, but with Raven and Beast Boy, could you expect any less?

“When you asked me out on a date, this isn’t exactly what I had in mind.”

  
Raven raised her arms and muttered her three word mantra, encasing a nearby car in black energy and sending it spiraling down the street. Plasmus stood about a block away, screeching and flinging mud at buildings and fleeing civilians.

  
“Wasn’t exactly number one on my ‘Things To Do With Raven On Our First Date’ list either,” Beast Boy shot back, dodging the ball of muck Plasmus had just thrown at him.

  
The empath and changeling regrouped behind a building out of sight of the maroon monster. The two had previously been on their way to a restaurant that Beast Boy had insisted to Raven would be perfect for their first date. A restaurant which Raven did not know about, and hoped they would get to soon. She was starving. It had been just when the green teenager announced that they were almost there that Plasmus had attacked.

  
Raven looked at Beast Boy. The two had been dating for three months now and this was the first opportunity they’d gotten to go out on the town for a date. Beast Boy had asked her out awhile ago- about three days after they’d “officially” started dating- but they had never found the time. They were always off on missions, or too tired from a mission the previous day to go out. That, or Robin and Starfire had declared they were already going out on a date, which meant Raven, Beast Boy and Cyborg were stuck watching the Tower. Why Cyborg couldn’t watch the Tower himself was an unspoken rule: if there was an attack (such as with the instance of Terra and Slade), he couldn’t very well defend the Tower by himself, even with all of the advanced technology and machinery he had installed. It had become a rule that at any given moment the Titans weren’t on a mission, at least two of them were to remain at the Tower. Since Robin and Starfire were the power-couple, that left Beast Boy and Raven to scrounge for any available dates that weren’t already taken. Tonight had been their only free day and it was now being ruined by an untimely attack, courtesy of one of their most tedious adversaries.

  
“I think we should call the others,” Raven voiced, unclipping her communicator from her belt.

  
Beast Boy turned towards her and grabbed her hand, closing the yellow communication device.

  
“Come on, Rae,” he whined. “This is our only free night. If we call the others, there’s no chance of us ever getting a date.”

  
Raven looked into her boyfriend’s jade eyes. She loved the kindness in them and it was like she was being pulled into the tide of his deep, green pools every time she looked into them. Against her better judgement, she sighed.

  
“Okay,” she relented. “But if anything happens, or one of us gets hurt, we’re calling the others.”

  
Beast Boy nodded. He peeked around the corner of the building they were behind, trying to assess the damage. There were no longer any civilians in the way of harm, everyone having fled at the first signs of danger. On the other hand, a massive amount of damage had been done. Cars scattered the streets, flipped on their sides and roofs, road signs and trees had been uprooted, and buildings were missing chunks of their foundations, many covered in reddish-purple goo.

  
Beast Boy turned to Raven. “So,” he whispered, “what’s the plan?”

  
Raven thought for a moment then sighed. “Robin’s better at this than I am. Why don’t we just play it by ear? I know this isn’t really my style, but since there’s only two of us, I think we should just play to our strengths and see how things pan out.”

  
Beast Boy nodded. He waved Raven forward, following behind her as the empath darted from where they had been concealed and levitated into the air.

  
“Titans, go!” the changeling shouted before morphing into an eagle and taking off.

  
Plasmus screeched, seeing his two enemies reveal themselves once again. He quickly launched an attack, flinging two mud balls: one at each hero. 

Raven gracefully dodged hers, allowing the sticky goop to slam into a brick building behind her. Pointing her arm at a bus, it became concealed in her dark magic and flew at Plasmus, slamming into his back. Several street signs followed, disorienting the maroon beast until Beast Boy followed up with his own attack.

  
Still in eagle form, Beast Boy flew up to a rooftop, pausing to get a view of the fight from a higher vantage point. After he was sure Raven had done her part, he dove off of the rooftop, turning into a blue whale mid-air before slamming down on top of Plasmus. Feeling the goop give under his superior mass, Beast Boy shifted back to his human form and walked away from his adversary.

  
It didn’t take long for Plasmus to reform. While Beast Boy still had his back turned, Plasmus sent a wave of glop in the green teen’s direction, sweeping him up and throwing him into a brick building. As the goo hit the wall, the bricks collapsed on top of Beast Boy, having been knocked loose earlier in Plasmus’ attack.

  
Raven gasped as the falling bricks continued to bury her boyfriend. “Beast Boy!” She cried out.

She hurriedly made her way to the pile and began digging, removing bricks with both her hands and powers. About halfway through the pile, Raven saw a patch of green amidst the brown and red dirt. Soon enough, a jade gorilla revealed himself, shaking sienna powder from his fur.

  
As Raven stepped back from the destruction, Beast Boy shifted back to his human form, coughing from inhaling the dust that had been kicked up in the collapse of the building. As he cleared his lungs, Raven’s eyes ran over his body, searching for injuries.

  
“Are you okay?” she asked.

  
Beast Boy nodded his head. “Yeah.”

  
Raven offered him her hand, carefully helping him from the pile of debris. Once freed, the boy gave a nod of thanks before shifting into a rhinoceros and charging the gooey villain. Raven sighed, following up her boyfriend’s attack by ripping several lamp posts from their foundations and sending them spiraling through the air.

  
Both offensive maneuvers proved successful. The lamp posts disoriented Plasmus, giving the changeling an opportunity to slam the maroon monster against a partially decimated building. While in his state of unawareness, the couple skillfully combined a series of attacks, eating away thick layer of goo around the poor man inside. In no time, the very man was revealed, slumping to the pavement as a soft snore left his mouth.

  
Having seen that they were successful, Beast Boy pumped his fist in the air. Noticing her boyfriend’s actions, Raven simply rolled her eyes, a small smile on her lips.

  
“I’ll call the police,” Raven said monotonously, unclipping her communicator from her belt.

  
Beast Boy mirrored her actions, removing his own communicator from his belt and checking the time digitally written on the circular screen face.

  
“Sweet!” he enthused. “We just saved the city from a disgusting mud monster and there’s still plenty of time for our date!”

  
Beast Boy glanced over at Raven just as she was hanging up her call with the police. He slowly walked towards her, giving her a toothy grin.

  
“So, Rae,” he drawled, taking the empath’s hand into his own, “you ready?”

  
Raven offered no verbal answer, instead lacing her fingers through Beast Boy’s gloved ones and leaning her violet-haired head against his shoulder. Beast Boy smiled, taking her actions as a ‘yes’ and led her down the street towards their destination.

  
Once they reached the restaurant, Beast Boy halted in front, allowing Raven to look at the outside of the building. The empath eyed the restaurant for a moment before turning and raising a skeptical eyebrow. Beast Boy blushed, running his free hand across the back of his neck.

  
“I-uh… If you don’t like it, we can go somewhere else.” The boy tucked his chin to his chest in disappointment, but then seemed to remember Raven, and tried to amend his mistake with a smile.  
Although his smile seemed to say that it was no big deal, Raven could tell he had put a lot of thought into where he would take her on their first date and was now having doubts. She cast another glance towards the glass-plated entrance of the restaurant.

  
It was relatively small, nothing too fancy, but definitely nice. The interior resembled that of a coffee shop or café with a few two-person tables and booths and a calming and cozy atmosphere. From the menu boards, Raven could tell the cuisine was targeted towards vegans, not having meat or animal products in any of the meal choices. Overall, it seemed like an obvious choice for their first date. The vegan-friendly food options would appeal to Beast Boy, and the quiet atmosphere would appeal to Raven. Not to mention, she could even order a hot cup of fresh herbal tea should she wish to.

  
Beast Boy had really put a lot of thought into it and Raven appreciated the gesture. Even though he sometimes lacked in the intelligence department, his compassion and kindness never failed to shine through. Raven found him very sweet and could say without a doubt that his selfless gestures were what had caused her to fall for him in the first place.

  
She could still feel the small pinpricks of regret and disappointment her boyfriend was giving off and felt that she needed to assure him he had done a great job for their first date. She raised her hand to his cheek, cupping it as she turned his face towards her own. Leaning forwards, she gave him a soft kiss on the lips, resting her forehead against his as they broke away.

  
“I think it’s very nice,” Raven whispered, offering him a small smile.

  
Within seconds, the tiny pinpricks of doubt disappeared and the jade boy returned the smile, taking her hand into his own. He led her to the front door of the shop and immediately rushed to open it for her, allowing her inside before he followed.

  
‘ _Sweet and a gentleman. I’m a lucky girl_ ,’ Raven thought as she entered the shop. Maybe their first date wouldn’t end quite as badly as it had begun.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next one'll be up next week!: First Kiss.


	5. First Kiss: Day 5 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes first kisses are unexpected. Sometimes they're not.

He uncertainly returned the violet-eyed stare directed at him. He could feel vanilla-scented breath hitting his lips as her face drew ever so slowly towards his own. He knew what was about to happen- he had agreed to it, but was suddenly having second thoughts. Just when her face was a millimeter apart from his, he jerked his head back, turning his eyes to the grey blankets the two were seated on.

  
“Raven, are you sure about this?” Beast Boy hesitantly glanced back up at Raven, who looked as uncomfortable as he felt.

  
Slowly, Raven lifted her head and met his eyes. The girl clumsily brushed a stray lock of lavender hair behind her ear, biting her bottom lip in an anxiety-filled manner similar to that of a nervous school-girl- and Raven was no school-girl.

  
“I-I just want my first kiss to go to someone I trust,” the empath responded hesitantly.

  
Beast Boy gave her a small frown. He wasn’t sure if what they were doing was right. Both of them had agreed at first, seeing as neither had had a proper first kiss, but the situation just didn’t seem appropriate. Not to say that they didn’t feel affection for one another- they were best friends; they had known each other since their prepubescent years. If Beast Boy had to choose, Raven was definitely the Titan he trusted the most. When they had first met, the changeling and empath had had a rocky relationship, but over the years, the two had grown a strong friendly bond- one some might even consider a little more than just friendly. Through the process of seeing each other at their worst and best, and seeing each other mature and grow, they had connected on a much more personal level and now went to each other for guidance, comfort, advice and company. There was no other person each trusted more than the other.

  
Raven sighed. “Look Beast Boy, I’m not forcing you into this. It’s as much your choice as it is mine.” The amethyst-eyed girl met the jade teenager’s eyes. “I just feel like I’m… out of the loop.”

  
Beast Boy gave a chuckle, easing the tension between them ever so slightly. “And I’m not? Rae, I haven’t had a date since… well…” The boy trailed off, not wanting to bring up bad memories. He moved a gloved hand to scratch behind his neck as he continued. “I’m as far out of the loop as you are.”

  
Raven raised an eyebrow. He had told her he’d never kissed anyone before, however, she was having a hard time believing it. For as much as he bragged about his adoring fangirls, the empath was surprised he hadn’t pulled the moves on one of them already.

  
“You’re sure you've never kissed anyone?” Raven asked for reassurance. “You and Terra were pretty close. You two never…?”

  
Beast Boy shook his head. He still remembered the heartbreak he’d felt at her betrayal. He’d been hurting ever since then, but it was slowly starting to hurt less and less, knowing that in the end she had sacrificed her life to save them all and defeat Slade. Or had at least tried to. But while it was starting to hurt less and less, the pain would never completely disappear. Beast Boy knew he had seen Terra that day when they were fighting the camouflage creature. What hurt the most was knowing that she was alive and out there, but choosing to ignore him.

  
“No,” the shapeshifter clarified, still seeing the imploring look on the sorceress’ face, “Slade kind of ruined that moment.” His tone was bitter, and Raven could feel the pain that was associated with the memories that had been brought up. She simply nodded her head in understanding, pushing the issue no further.

  
A pregnant silence befell the two, neither wanting to speak for fear of bringing the awkwardness back into the situation. Not that the silence wasn’t awkward in and of itself.

  
Beast Boy surveyed the dark room around him, refusing to look at the empath seated on the bed in front of him. The unhappy statues and numerous books and scrolls caught his eye, as well as the looming, raven-shaped headboard just above him. He had always found the mysterious empath’s room creepy, but since really getting to know her, the space suddenly didn’t seem so frightening. It was sort of peaceful, actually. The soft light of the burning candles scattered about the room and the sweet aroma of vanilla that filled the air calmed his senses and the silence created the perfect environment for a sanctuary. No wonder Raven spent so much time here.

  
The green boy was pulled from his thoughts when a soft sigh hit his ears. 

I just want to know what it’s like,” Raven whispered. Beast Boy met her soft gaze, urging her to continue. “With Starfire and Robin dating and Cyborg off to Steel City to see Bumblebee every other week, there’re just too many romantic feelings floating around. My own emotions are starting to become all muddled up. I thought that maybe by doing this, I could somehow satisfy some sort of sexual urge and curiosity, but I don’t want to force it. I can sense you’re uncomfortable with the situation.” Raven cast her gaze to the blankets beneath her, tangling the fingers of her right hand in the sheets.

She was startled a moment later when she felt the soft warmness of Beast Boy’s gloved hand under her chin. He tipped her head up, just enough so that she could meet his jade eyes with her own lavender before saying, “I-I think I want to do this, if-if you’ll let me.” A puce blush spread across his cheeks and highlighted the tips of his pointed elven ears. Raven merely nodded her head slowly in response, not trusting her voice.

  
Slowly the changeling leaned forward, bringing his face closer to the girl’s in front of him. Just before making lip contact, he paused, allowing Raven to make the final decision. If she wanted to back out, now was the last chance. It took a few seconds of hesitation, but eventually, Raven moved those last few centimeters, closing the gap.

  
It was a hesitant kiss no doubt, neither having any experience, however, both found a great amount of pleasure in the sensation. Raven’s hands slipped into place behind Beast Boy’s neck, while his own hands cupped her soft cheeks. The kiss had started off slow and awkward, but once each found their rhythm, they were able to melt into it completely. The chemistry between them flowed surprisingly naturally and both found themselves more comfortable with the other in this intimate way than they had ever imagined.

  
It was several moments before they pulled apart for air, neither wanting to leave the blissful moment. Green irises met purple as the two gasped for breath, a small smile gracing each set of lips.

  
“H-how was that?” The shape-shifter asked nervously, not yet in control of his breathing.

  
“I have to admit,” Raven said, "that was pretty good for a first kiss.”

  
Beast Boy let his signature fanged grin cross his lips. “Glad I didn’t disappoint,” he chuckled. A sly smirk replaced the grin. “Now is there any chance I could get another?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perseverance: Day 6 is up next!


	6. Perseverance: Day 6 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beast Boy and Raven have struggled through many things to keep their relationship strong and alive. Now, they face the last test.

“Cyborg, can’t you drive any faster?” Beast Boy urged the half-robot from the back seat of the T-car.

  
Cyborg cast a quick glance over his shoulder. “B, I’m going as fast as I can.” 

  
They drove for a few more minutes before Beast Boy anxiously addressed Cyborg again. “How much further is it? Are we almost there?” His tone was slightly panicked, laced with excitement and hints of worry.

  
“Gar,” his wife gripped his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze, “It’s going to be okay.”

  
Beast Boy looked into Raven’s amethyst eyes- the eyes that he had grown to love and look forward to seeing each and every day. Despite her sweaty, shaky outward appearance, her eyes shined back at him, assuring him that everything would turn out just fine. She was just as beautiful as ever, despite the conditions.

  
He nodded and gave her hand a squeeze back. “Okay, Mama.”

  
Raven was laying across the backseats, her head in her husband’s lap as Cyborg drove the T-car. She was sweatier, shakier and paler than her usual calm and collected outward demeanor. It had been discovered only half an hour earlier that Raven was due to give birth to the children she had been carrying the past nine months. Currently, the three Titans were racing towards the hospital, hoping to get Raven there before she ruined the beautiful interior of Cyborg’s own baby. Nightwing (formerly Robin), his wife Starfire, and Cyborg’s wife Bumblebee had gone ahead by air and on the N-cycle (formerly the R-cycle), hoping to alert the hospital to Raven’s arrival so that a room could be prepared for her in advance.

  
Raven could sense her husband’s nervousness. This was the first time she was giving birth. Nightwing and Starfire, as well as Cyborg and Bee already had children of their own. Even Kid Flash and Jinx (who were back at the Tower babysitting) had a little girl. Raven and Beast Boy were the last ones to experience parenthood. On the other hand, they were the _first_ ones to have more than one baby at a time.

  
During her pregnancy, Raven and Beast Boy had quickly learned that not only was Raven carrying one baby, but three. The empath blamed it on her husband’s part-animal DNA. Unfortunately for the changeling, he couldn’t argue- it was sound logic- but that didn’t mean he appreciated the jokes. They’d come as soon as the young couple had received the shocking news: “Oh look, BB’s gonna have a litter!” “Wow B, looks like the animal in you _really_ came out that night.”  
Despite the teasing, Beast Boy knew he would always have the ‘best father’ title. His Raven was giving birth to three of his children, whereas Nightwing, Cyborg and Kid Flash only had one each. If he looked at it this way, he was already two points ahead.

  
He smiled down at his wife, brushing the hair off of her sweaty forehead. She had been having contractions for awhile now and he could tell they were getting painful. Raven was good at hiding her emotions, equally as good at hiding her pain, but by now, Beast Boy could read her like an open book. He knew that the cramps were painful, and felt a pang in his heart each time she squeezed his hand through one. He just wanted to get her to the hospital so that she could be put out of her discomfort.

  
She squeezed his hand as another contraction hit, and Beast Boy tried to ignore the tingling he felt in his fingers. ‘ _We’re almost there_ ,’ he thought. ‘ _We’re_ _almost there_.’

  
By the time the T-car came thundering into the hospital parking lot, a nurse was already standing by with a wheelchair for the soon-to-be-mother. The pink-clad woman quickly helped Raven into the chair, Beast Boy assisting as well, and the three took off into the hospital. Once they reached the maternity ward, the nurse stopped.

  
“Mr. Logan,” she said sweetly, “you will have to wait out here until we are ready for you.”

  
Beast Boy went to protest. “But-”

  
Nightwing grabbed the anxious green man by the shoulder. Carefully spinning the changeling around, the masked man led him back towards a waiting room, furnished with plush, blue-cushioned chairs and silent television sets hanging from the corners of the room. Bee and Starfire were patiently waiting; there for the emotional support of both the shapeshifter and his wife during this pivotal moment in their lives. As Nightwing took a seat, he gently pulled the green man into the chair beside him, giving him a reassuring smile. Cyborg plopped down in the empty seat on the other side of Beast Boy, having followed the nurse and Raven at more of a distance than the nervous father-to-be.

  
Cyborg clapped a metal hand to the green man’s shoulder as well. Beast Boy jumped a little and Cyborg gave a chuckle. “Relax man, Raven’s gonna be okay.”

  
Beast Boy turned his emerald eyes up towards his friend. “But what if-”

  
“B,” Cyborg interrupted, “your instincts are on overdrive, man. You’re not missing anything. The doctors are just getting Raven comfortable. Once the room is all set up, they’ll call you back there.”

  
The changeling continued to stare at his friend in silence, contemplating his words. After a moment, the green man nodded his head and let out a breath. “Okay.”

  
The five heroes continued to wait for the doctor, watching the silent TVs and reading magazines. Beast Boy’s leg began to shake and he wrung his sweaty hands in his lap as his jade eyes darted around the room. Eventually the wait became too much for him and he leapt up from his chair. Nightwing immediately grabbed the changeling’s wrist and pulled him back down.

“Beast Boy,” the masked hero addressed his teammate. “We know you’re nervous, but you have to relax. Raven’s going to need you in there and if you burn yourself out, you’re not going to be much help.”

Bee spoke up for the first time. “Yeah BB. Havin’ a baby’s a lot of work. If Sparky weren’t there when I had Turner, I don’t think I would’ve been able to do it. You gotta stay strong for Raven.”

  
Starfire gave some encouragement as well. “Yes. The wait is long, but you must persevere, friend. I am most certain that you and Raven will make glorious k'norfkas." 

  
Beast Boy gave a nod, but he still wasn’t very convinced. His animal instincts were urging him to go to his mate and ensure that she was properly looked after. He didn’t completely trust anyone with Raven except for himself. This was one of the most important moments in his life and he wanted to be with Raven every second of the way. His friends might have been calling him overprotective, but he only saw it as his duty as her husband to protect Raven during this difficult time.

  
He struggled to get out of Nightwing’s grip, but the former Boy Wonder held him tight.

  
“Beast Boy, we’re all proud of you, and we know that Raven is too.”

  
Beast Boy faltered for a moment. The statement was surprising coming from Nightwing of all people, and out of the blue like that.

  
Cyborg chuckled and the green man’s eyes turned on him. “Yeah man,” the android said, wiping a tear from his human eye, “we don’t know how y’all did it.”

  
Beast Boy gave his friends a quizzical look.

  
Cyborg only laughed some more. “Damn, I mean, you guys have had one of the most difficult relationships I’ve ever seen. You and Raven have had more problems in the few years you’ve been together than most couples have in a lifetime.”

  
Beast Boy was still confused. He had stopped struggling against Nightwing, and sat down to listen to what his friends had to say.

  
Cyborg continued. “Raven wouldn’t even agree to date you at first because of what she thought her powers would do. It was agony for the rest of us: watching you two skirt around each other for those months after you’d asked her out. The sexual tension between you two was so thick it would have taken a chainsaw to cut through it. You both liked each other- hell, Raven had even told you she liked you when you confessed- but she was too afraid to give it a chance. When y’all finally went on that date, man, it was a relief to all of us.”

  
Everyone nodded. Nightwing continued.

  
“When you two got together and Raven discovered her powers were neutralized when she was with you, everyone was happy for you guys. Your’s and Raven’s relationship was great. Then there was the problem with your instincts. You were way too protective over her. Raven’s always been a big girl- able to take care of herself. She didn’t like how overbearing you’d become. I mean, that one time, you practically mauled Adonis for flirting with her. Raven had to call you off of him before you would stop.”

  
Beast Boy blushed hard, scratching at his cheeks, hoping his friends wouldn’t notice.

  
Bee took up the story next. “It took Rae threatening to break up with you before you finally let your guard down. And I thought Kid had it hard for Jinx.” Bumblebee rolled her eyes. “I never woulda thought Raven was the type of gal to go after someone so clingy.”

  
Beast Boy scoffed. It was clear some of his anxiety over the situation was beginning to dissolve.

  
Bee sent him a smirk. “It’s okay, BB. S’not your fault. In fact, I think I even remember Raven saying something about it being one of your more endearing qualities (not to boost your ego or anything),” Bee mumbled the last part under her breath.

  
Beast Boy perked up a little. Bee continued the story.

  
“Anyway, then came your wedding.”

  
Cyborg laughed so hard at this that he almost fell out of his chair. “G-good God!” he hollered, earning looks from the other people sitting in the waiting room. “Y-you were sweating buckets!”

  
Beast Boy sent the android a scowl.  
Starfire decided to continue on with the explanation, seeing as Bee was busy trying to calm her husband and her own seemed too embarrassed by all of the looks they were getting from the strangers to say anything.

  
“It was a most worrying time,” the alien said, sending a sympathetic look in the green man’s direction. “I remember Raven’s hesitance after you offered her your hand in betrothal. I believe she was scared. She did not see herself as a person worthy of your love. It took much reassurance for her to say yes.” She smiled sadly. “I was afraid for your relationship when she faltered in her vows. I had never seen friend Raven stutter as much as she did on your day of marriage. I am overjoyed that she agreed to marry you. It is clear that you are the ‘meant to be’.” Starfire furrowed her brows. She had gotten better at earthly expressions over the years, but some still continued to confuse her at times.

  
Beast Boy sent her a small smile. “I remember that,” he said. He gave a small laugh. “I was so nervous. When she didn’t immediately say yes, I thought she was going to dump me then and there. I’m really glad that she didn’t.” Slowly, the smile on his lips faded and he gave a sigh.

  
“Even after we’d figured out the whole marriage thing, we still had problems getting Rae pregnant once we’d decided we wanted kids. I mean, if we hadn’t figured that out, we wouldn’t be here at all.” He sighed, twisting his hands in his lap. The nervousness was beginning to come back. The green man had promised himself that he would stay strong. He had to be. For Raven.

  
“We had tried so long. After you and Dick, and Vic and Karen got pregnant, Rae and I felt like there was something wrong with us. We couldn’t conceive no matter how hard we tried. We both wanted it so bad. After all of those negative pregnancy tests, we decided to go get fertility tested. We figured that something was wrong biologically. I mean, I don’t think we were doing the other part wrong.” He gave a small chuckle.

  
“On the way over to the specialist, Raven told me that she thought she was the problem. Being half human and half demon, she thought she was sterile. Once I heard her say that, my heart plummeted. I’ve always wanted kids, but if I couldn't have them with the woman I love, then what’s the point?” A couple of tears slipped down Beast Boy’s cheeks and he wiped them away, sniffling a little before continuing.

  
“When Raven’s tests came back normal, an even more depressing thought hit me. If she wasn’t the one with the problem, then it was me. When my tests came back, I couldn’t stand it. I couldn’t have kids of my own because of an incurable disease I’d contracted as a child.” Beast Boy slammed his fist down on the arm of his chair angrily.

  
He sent a watery smile at Cyborg. “I can’t thank Vic enough for helping us out. If it weren’t for all of the research he’d put into that experimental treatment he’d found for Raven and I, we would have never gotten to this point.”

  
He clapped the android on the shoulder. “Raven was reluctant at first, but eventually she agreed. And here we are.”

  
Cyborg turned and swept the smaller man up into an embrace. As he pulled away, he ruffled Beast Boy’s green locks in a brotherly way.

  
“See man,” he said, “You and Raven have made it this far. You’ve persevered through all of the tough stuff and this is your final test. You and Raven just have to make it through these next couple hours.”

  
Beast Boy nodded his head. “We’ll make it through this.” He looked up at all of his friends. All of them were giving him large smiles.

  
The nurse that had escorted Raven to the maternity ward stuck her head out of the doorway leading down the hall to the patients' rooms.

  
“Mr. Logan, she’s ready for you now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week is the last chap for 2014! Whoop! Whoop! But don't worry, I've already started writing for the 2015 prompts and will continue posting one a week like I am doing now. 
> 
> Next week's chap will be Day 7 (2014): Wedding


	7. Wedding: Day 7 (2014)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Garfield and Raven discuss their wedding plans.

“I thought the bride was supposed to wear white?” Garfield looked across the table to his fiancé, who was busy filling out wedding invitations.

  
“In the United States, yes,” she replied, passing him one of the invitations. “In Azarath, the bride wears gold.”

  
Garfield grimaced at the taste as he licked the seal of a specially emblazoned envelope, closing the invitation inside. Raven had gone to a bridal shop several months in advance and gotten special envelopes and cards for her’s and Garfield’s wedding, both having their names written on the front in neat, flowing script. The two hadn't actually gotten around to filling out the cards until now because of other small hitches and disagreements with the other elements of their wedding.

  
Raven had wanted to have a traditional Azarathian wedding, whereas Gar had wanted something more low-key and simple, so that there was more money to spend on the honeymoon. Unfortunately, neither had gotten the _exact_ wedding they had wanted, however, both were extremely happy with the compromise.  
The ceremony itself was to be as is traditional to Azarath, and Raven was going to wear a gold wedding dress, however the rest, such as the decorations and reception, were to go as a low-scale American wedding. The agreement satisfied both, though Gar still had some questions about the Azarathian ceremony.

  
“What does the gold stand for? In America, I know that white stands for purity and new beginnings, and I remember that in Africa, the bride wore colors that were customary to her village. What does gold mean in Azarath?

  
Raven smiled at her fiancé as she handed him two more cards. “In Azarath, many of the citizens have powers similar to mine, aside from the fact that they aren’t demonic in origin.” Raven frowned slightly. She had always been insecure about her heritage and anything to do with it.

  
Gar seemed to notice her discomfort and rose from his side of the table to comfort his soon-to-be-wife. He gently wrapped his strong, green arms around her shoulders in a soft embrace and placed a kiss on top of her purple-haired head.

  
Noticing that he was behind her, Raven leaned her head back slightly so that it rested against his chest, continuing to add details to the invitation in front of her in her small, neat cursive. After she finished it, she tossed it across the table to where Gar had been previously sitting and tilted her head back so that she could look him in the eyes. She smiled up at him as he leaned down to give her a kiss. Raven returned it, continuing to smile. Somehow, Gar always knew exactly what to do to cheer her up.

  
Sighing contentedly, Raven continued her explanation. “In magic, certain colors represent the purity, balance and power of the caster and spell. My magic for example, is black, representing strength. Trigon’s magic is red, the color of evil and negative origins. White colored magic represents perfect balance, like when I am in complete control of my emotions; my cloak turns white. Blue magic, such as when I heal, represents purity and selflessness. The caster must only think of something other than him or herself in order for their magic to be this color."

  
Garfield’s eyes widened slightly at this news. He knew that Raven was selfless, but he had never realized the amount of dedication she held towards each member of the team. She had healed each of them a countless number of times, and had put them before herself every single time she did it. Looking back on it, Gar made another connection. When Raven healed the others, her healing power always had traces of her own black magic seeping through the blue. It was different when she healed him. And now he knew why. Whenever Raven healed only him, her power took on the purest blue Garfield had ever seen.

  
He bent over, placing another kiss to the top of his fiancé’s head as she continued.  
“Gold is reserved for unity. That is why the bride wears gold. In Azarath, weddings are more than just the exchange of vows and rings. Azarathian weddings also include the combining of souls, thus allowing each member of the couple to draw strength from their spouse should they need it. The saying ‘two souls in one body’ comes from this Azarathian practice.”

  
Raven paused for a moment, taking one of Garfield’s green hands into her own. She played with his fingers slightly as she continued on, quieter and more cautious than before. “This is why I want to do the Azarathian ceremony.”

  
Hesitantly, Raven turned her violet eyes up to her fiancé. She hadn’t told him exactly what the Azarathian ceremony entailed before making him agree to it. It was important to her that she got his approval. Unlike earthly wedding ceremonies, Azarathian weddings were permanent. There was no divorce if things suddenly didn’t work out. The combining of souls was the most intimate act a couple could participate in and Raven wasn’t completely sure Gar was ready to share that type of bond with her.

  
She turned her gaze back down to the stack of wedding cards sitting in front of her. She knew that Garfield loved her- he had proposed after all- but she knew that he hadn’t been expecting an Azarathian wedding ceremony. She couldn’t blame him if he wanted to back out. Combining souls was a serious commitment that couldn’t be reversed, and she didn't want the man she loved regretting a hastily made decision.

  
Raven fiddled with one of the cards as she continued on in a quiet and hollow voice. “It-it’s okay if you don’t want to do the Azarathian ceremony. I-I’d understand if-”

  
Raven was cut off when Garfield suddenly lifted her out of her chair and spun her around to face him. He quickly brought his lips to hers in a passionate and reassuring kiss, which was instantly reciprocated. As they pulled away, Gar rested his forehead against Raven’s and looked into her eyes lovingly.

  
“Of course I’ll do the ceremony,” he reassured her.

  
Raven averted her gaze from him, staring at the carpet beneath her feet. “Gar,” she began.

  
“Raven,” Gar gently placed a hand below the empath’s chin, tilting her head up so that her sparkling amethysts met his emeralds once again. “I love you with all of my heart,” he whispered, placing a delicate kiss on her forehead. “All of my soul,” he placed a kiss on her nose. “And my strength is yours,” he finished, kissing her lips softly.

  
Raven looked into his eyes, searching for any signs of hesitance, unsureness or doubt and could find none. He truly meant what he said.

  
“Thank you,” she whispered, hugging him tighter.

  
Gar smiled, petting his fiancé’s purple hair as she clung to him. Raven buried her face into his chest, taking in his foresty scent before pulling away and meeting his jade eyes. Gar gave her his signature fanged smile.

  
“I’ll always love you, Raven. And whether you like it or not, you’re stuck with me.”

  
Raven let out a small laugh. “Okay, Gar. Love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed that chapter. This is the last one for the 2014 prompts, but don't worry. I've started writing for the 2015 prompts and should have the first one (chapter 8 of this fic) up next Monday. 
> 
> Love y'all! Till next time!


	8. Midnight: Day 1 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beast Boy's favorite hour is midnight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First chapter for 2015! I've cranked out a few already for the 2015 prompts and will continue with weekly updates. For now, hope you guys enjoy this chapter: Midnight.

He silently snuck out into the dark hallway, carefully peeking around each corner to ensure that the passage was empty. It was the dead of night, and the last thing he wanted to do was wake any of his teammates. After reassuring himself that the hall was in fact devoid of life, the changeling continued to tiptoe down the corridor, destination already in mind. Just as he reached the door with her name engraved on it, something wrapped itself around his waist. Before he could yelp in surprise, another thing covered his mouth, sending chills up his spine.

"Hello Garfield," a silky female voice purred in his ear.

The changeling quickly broke free of her grasp, spinning around and pinning his attacker to the wall. He held her wrists above her head with one hand, the other flat against the wall beside her head, helping to support him as he leaned his body against hers.

"You know Raven," he growled huskily, "you really shouldn't sneak up on someone this late at night. I guess I'll just have to teach you a lesson."

Spreading her legs slightly with one of his own, he slotted their hips together and then craned his head, beginning to tenderly kiss the side of her neck. The empath struggled to get her hands free, longing to give them some kind of anchor, however the shapeshifter used his superior strength to keep them pushed against the wall, continuing his treatment.

Once his teeth came into play, the empath had difficulty keeping quiet. He nibbled right at the junction between her chin and neck, using his sharp canines skillfully, scraping the skin just right for the reaction that he wanted. Allowing her use of her hands, they sought out his shoulders, nails snagging the white nightshirt he was wearing.

As a stifled moan crossed the sorceress' lips, he pulled away from her neck, satisfied with the mark he had left upon it. Using the break to her advantage, the empath stripped the changeling of his shirt, running her hands across his sculpted abdominals and pectorals. Her hands found their way up to his head, fingers tangling in the green locks as she pulled him down so that their lips could meet.

His eyes slowly fluttered closed, hands sliding down the wall and around the demoness' slim, hourglass figure, ripping the cloak from her shoulders, leaving her in her nightwear. Using his distraction, the empath quickly flipped their positions, shoving him against the wall as her tongue forced its way into his mouth.

He groaned into her mouth, partially in defeat from being tricked out of the dominant position and partially from pleasure. His tongue began to fight against hers, however she would not let him gain any headway. She was steadfast in keeping the dominant position and would not be as easily tricked out of it as he had been. She shoved her tongue in farther, raking her nails down his bare back, already anticipating the deep growl working its way up his throat. He abruptly broke the kiss, panting as he searched her dark, swirling eyes, finding signs of lust and desire hiding behind her deep plum irises.

She stared back into his eyes, glowing yellow-green in the dark, much like a cat's. Given his part animal DNA, it didn't surprise her to see that he was using his night vision to search her features. She gave him a smoldering smirk, pressing his shoulder blades back into the wall as she proceeded to place a series of quick kisses along his collarbone. She traced her way up his neck and along his jawline, sometimes using just her lips and at others using her tongue and teeth to draw out the quiet grunts he continued to give her. He tipped his head back slightly, exposing more of his flesh for her to nip and suck. Meanwhile, his hands went to work on her voluptuous body, kneading the curves of her hips, feeling her go weak-kneed.

When she finally made it back to his lips, the changeling returned the kiss with fervor, biting her bottom lip until he drew blood. Both of their non-human halves became excited, his animal craving the taste of his mate and her demon enjoying that he was being a little rough with her. His hands tangled in her hair, tugging the ends, forcing her to leave a fluttery sigh against his lips. Hers played with the green locks at the nape of his neck, her nails purposefully scraping his skin, sending a shiver down his spine.

After a few seconds, he bit down particularly hard on her lower lip, causing her to cry out as he once again took dominance over her and slammed her against the wall. He pulled back from her, denying the empath his contact for a moment as his eyes greedily took in her form, grey skin shining with a slight sweat, made visible from the moonlight gleaming in from the window down the hall. She reached for his shoulders again, plump lips seeking his, a fat droplet of blood forming on the lower where his canine had dug in rather deeply. He dodged from her grasp, instead trailing his fingers over her body beginning with her shoulders, sliding the straps of her tank top slightly down over her arms. His hands paused at her breasts momentarily, massaging until she was stifling moans, then continuing down her stomach, a small sliver of it exposed by the shorts riding low on her curvy hips. One of his palms trailed down her thigh, moving inwards as he lifted the limb to wrap around his waist. His hands moved swiftly behind her, lifting the sorceress as she wrapped her other leg around him, her hands seeking his shoulders for balance. Using the wall as an extra support, the changeling moved his hands to either side of her, forming a cage. He smiled, leaning in to lick the glistening red droplet from her lower lip before softly kissing her, lips molding against one another.

It lasted for awhile before the two broke apart, panting as small smiles adorned their faces. The empath lifted a hand as she caressed the changeling's cheek, resting her forehead against his as she softly whispered his name. Giving her another quick peck, he carried her into her room slightly down the hall, the automatic door closing quietly behind them.

As he laid the sorceress down on her bed, climbing up to hover over her himself, he caught a glance at her alarm clock, seeing that it was precisely twelve o' clock. He smiled to himself. Midnight would always be his favorite hour.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Second Kiss.


	9. Second Kiss: Day 2 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raven always goes back for seconds.

It had been an accident. Neither of them had meant for it to happen. It had been a tiny insignificant incident. Something that shouldn't have made a difference. Something that happens to people all the time. Yet it had made a difference, and the puzzling question was _why?_.

She had been drifting silently through the halls, book in hand, teacup in the other, heading towards her room for her scheduled afternoon meditation session. She had just come from the common room, having read on the couch for the past few hours before being interrupted by Robin and Starfire who had not-so-subtly started a make out session right in front of her. Not one particularly fond of intimacy, Raven had decided to move elsewhere, leaving the lovebirds to their own devices. It was only a split second before the 'incident' occurred that Raven thought it might have been a better idea to have just stayed in the common room.

He had been running through the halls, trying to escape the punishment that awaited him. Just minutes before, the changeling had been caught in Cyborg's room, trying to steal the android's special edition version of the newest Mega Monkeys game, yet to hit the store shelves. He had almost succeeded too, having gotten the game off of the high shelf it had been resting on and stored safely out of sight under the top of his uniform. It had been just when he was making his getaway that Cyborg had entered the room, suspicion written all over his features. That was when Beast Boy had made his 'great escape.'

"Beast Boy!" Cyborg yelled.

Raven rolled her eyes having heard the commotion. _'He's always getting into trouble,'_ she thought. _'He just can't seem to stay out of other people's business.'_

She continued on her way, almost to her room when Beast Boy suddenly rounded the corner. Just before they collided, Raven regretted having not heeded the warning in Cyborg's voice. Before she could react, Beast Boy slammed into her, their lips accidentally bumping for just a moment before both of them tumbled to the floor.

Raven's book thumped to the ground forgotten within a moment, but the tea seemed to have different ideas. The herbal concoction leaped out of the cup as the empath lost her balance, spilling down the front of her robe before the teacup was jerked from her hand in the harsh collision with the floor. Beast Boy had ended up on top of her, both heroes in shock, faces mere inches apart. A dark blush stained both sets of cheeks, Raven and Beast Boy realizing what had just happened.

The changeling looked down into Raven's lavender eyes, the puce in his cheeks growing even darker, if it were even still possible. A gloved hand near each side of Raven's head held him up. His hips rested against Raven's, his legs placed just on the outsides of her thighs. After a few seconds of staring back into his jade orbs, Raven cleared her throat uncomfortably, realizing their compromising position. Beast Boy's eyes widened and he immediately scrambled to climb off of Raven, apologizing profusely.

"Raven, I am so sorry! Cy was chasing me and I wasn't paying attention and I came around the corner and I couldn't stop and-and. . ." Beast Boy paused to take a breath, his eyes widening to saucers and the blush returning full force from the roots of his green hair down to the toes hidden in his purple and black sneakers. "And we-we kissed!"

Raven rolled her eyes, sitting up and blowing away the hair that had been knocked into her face during the fall. She frowned down at her wet cloak, removing it and dropping it beside her into a squishy pile as she stood.

Beast Boy blushed even harder now, looking at her leotard-clad body. The tightly fitting article showed off all of her curves, her smooth pale legs and accentuated her bosom, leaving little to the imagination. He was unused to seeing her without her cloak and was surprised by how mature his teammate appeared at only eighteen. She was undeniably beautiful.

Raven dusted herself off as she stood, sneaking a look at her green teammate. She had to admit, he wasn't bad looking. The opposite, in fact. He was nearing seventeen, just a couple months away from his birthday and had admittedly filled out his suit quite nicely. He was no longer the squeaky-voiced, prepubescent boy she had once known. His arms and legs were well toned, and Raven could make out the outline of his six-pack through the skintight material of his uniform.

Soon her glance turned into a stare. A bright red blush was reforming on Raven's cheeks and she could feel her powers stirring. She needed to get this under control before she destroyed some part of the Tower. Taking a deep breath, she calmly said to him, "We didn't kiss. We bumped into each other."

Beast Boy didn't seem to hear her.

"Our lips touched and-"

Raven scowled at him, becoming frustrated with his inability to calm himself. It had been an accident, so what? She didn't understand why he was making such a big deal about it.

"Beast Boy!" Raven growled.

The green teen stopped mid-babble, surprised by the empath's outburst.

Raven sighed, placing a hand to her chakra. Her head was pounding from trying to suppress all of her emotions.

"We did not kiss. It was an accident. It doesn't count."

Beast Boy opened his mouth for an interjection, but Raven ignored him, continuing with her rational.

"And even if we did 'kiss'," she emphasized, making air quotes, "it was an accident. Neither of us wanted it to happen, and it didn't mean anything."

Beast Boy's jade orbs immediately fell to the ground, his ears drooping. His embarrassment had left him, a feeling of rejection and disappointment now radiating from his persona.

Raven was baffled by the sudden rush of new emotions. _'What was that about?'_ She thought to herself. She peeked at Beast Boy, head and ears still downcast.

_'You don't really believe it 'meant nothing' do you?'_

Her emotions were each starting to put their two-cents in and it was giving her a headache. She looked down at her boots to prevent the frustration from showing on her face.

_'You think he's a hottie,'_ Happy giggled.

_'Yeah, Rae-Rae! First kiss!'_ Brave cheered. _'Let's get another!'_

The first emotion spoke again. _'You know it meant something, even if it was an accident. And he,'_  Raven lifted her head once more to look at her teammate, _'knows it too.'_

Raven placed her hands on her hips, still speaking with her emotions.

_'So what? Maybe it did mean something. It doesn't matter. Things won't get weird between us because of a little mishap.'_

The first emotion, Love, Raven deduced, giggled.

_'Darling, that's where you're wrong. This is your chance! We all know about that crush you've been harboring for Garfield since the Brotherhood mission.'_

Raven could feel herself blushing.  _'So what? Maybe I thought he looked good in a leader's role. It doesn't mean that I have a crush on him.'_

Love laughed again. _'Of course, dear. We both know that it's much more than just a crush at this point.'_

Raven felt like slamming her head against the wall. She was not going to do this.

_'Shut up!'_ She commanded. _'I don't have to do anything.'_

_'Have it your way, dear. We can't force you to do anything, but we can do it for you.'_ Raven could sense the smirk attached to those words.

Suddenly she felt her control slipping. Love was fighting to get loose, and she had support. Raven could feel Love, Brave and Happy all pushing at the front of her mind, threatening to make her lose control.

Raven fought back, but it was no use. Three against one was not a fair fight and she felt her control slip as her consciousness was pushed to the back of her mind and Love took control over her body.

It was like looking through a telescope. Raven watched as Love slowly walked up to Beast Boy, the green boy finally looking up as she approached. Love gazed into the changeling's emerald orbs, as his stared back into her violets. She slowly raised her hand to his face, gently cupping his cheek.

"Maybe I was wrong before," the emotion said. She then quickly brought Raven's dark grey lips to his green, initiating a sweet, but passionate kiss before relenting control of the empath's body back to its proper owner.

Raven was frozen. She was kissing Beast Boy! And he was kissing her!

By the time Raven had full control of her body again, Beast Boy had responded to the kiss, his eyes closed, lips moving against hers, gloved hands resting gently on her hips. Raven found her own hands griping his shoulders, eyes wide in shock, but lips moving of their own accord.

She was tempted to pull away and just back out before things went too far, but she had to admit, the kiss was sort of. . . nice. And chances were, she would never get the chance to kiss someone again.

Finding a bout of confidence, Raven deepened the kiss, pressing her lips harder into Beast Boy's and moving her hands into his hair, lacing her fingers through his green locks. She closed her eyes as she lost herself in the sensation.

Beast Boy gasped, taken aback by her forwardness. Raven took the opportunity to slip her tongue into his mouth. She could feel a growl rumbling in his chest as she explored and his hands slid around her waist, pulling her into his warm body.

It was several more moments before they pulled away, panting and eyes wide in disbelief. His verdant pierced into her violet, a question in his swirling irises.

Raven removed her hands from his shoulders, pulling out of the embrace. The changeling looked shell-shocked, simply blinking at her, unsure of what to say, as she began walking down the hall.

Halfway to her room, Raven turned back to him, finding just a bit more of that confidence that had filled her moments before. Going back to him and standing on her tiptoes, she placed her mouth right next to his pointed ear, making it twitch slightly as her warm breath hit the shell.

"Even if that first kiss had counted," she whispered, "I've always been one for seconds."

She pulled away smirking, turned and finished making her way to her room, leaving the dumbstruck changeling standing alone in the hallway wondering what the hell had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Dreaming.


	10. Dreaming: Day 3 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beast Boy finds a cure for his nightmares.

He watched as she fell, urging his body to move faster, to make that extra leap. He'd seen it coming; he should have reacted faster.

Her cloak snapped as wind rushed all around her, her flyaway purple locks streaming behind her head as she tumbled through the air, helpless and unable to stop her decent. The ground was rushing up fast, but Raven continued to spiral downward, unconscious, unaware of the danger she was in.

Beast Boy screamed, pleading her to wake up and stop the inevitable, meanwhile pushing himself to make it under her in time to catch her, but it was no use. He couldn't move any faster; he couldn't make her fall any slower.

She hit the ground with a bone-shattering slam, her navy blue cape billowing around her before slowly fluttering down to cover the enchantress' broken form. Beast Boy ran to the scene, sobs already escaping his throat as he saw his worst fears confirmed: he hadn't been fast enough. Raven was dead.

His wailing became louder as he knelt down next to her, hugging the purple-haired girl's body closer to his, begging her to come back, to stay with him, but he knew that it was already too late to save her.

"Raven!"

* * *

 

Beast Boy bolted awake with a cry as he slowly took in his surroundings. His cheeks and pillow were wet with tears and the sheets were pulled down, twisted around his legs, leaving his arms and bare chest chilly. He was in his room with the forest green paint and bunk bed pushed against the far wall, the window next to it wide open, allowing a beam of moonlight to spill in, illuminating a small patch of stained carpet in the center of the room. The curtains swayed gently with the cool night breeze blowing into the dorm, causing Beast Boy to shiver. Carefully, the shapeshifter descended the ladder attached to the frame of his bed and crossed the carpet to close the window, encasing the room in darkness.

Thankful for his enhanced vision, Beast Boy managed to stumble his way to the door, pushing it aside as he escaped into the hallway. Without any clear destination in sight, he began wandering the halls, hoping to alleviate some of the adrenaline still running through his system.

As he walked, he quietly hummed to himself, wondering just where he was going in the first place. Maybe he would go to the kitchen to retrieve a warm glass of soy milk to help ease him back to sleep. Yes, that sounded like a good plan.

He quietly passed by Robin's room, tiptoeing so as to not wake him, then by Starfire's and Cyborg's. Just as he was about to pass Raven's door, a strong compulsion took over him, stopping the green boy in his tracks. Slowly, Beast Boy raised his fist to the cold steel, giving two soft knocks before lowering his arm again. Within minutes, Raven was standing in the doorway, arms crossed tightly across her chest, sleepy eyes narrowed and lips twisted into a frown, clear that she was unhappy at being awakened at such an early hour.

"Beast Boy," she yawned. "What do you want? It's three a.m."

Seeing her standing there alive and well was all it took. Beast Boy launched himself at the empath, tears breaking past the dams behind his eyes as his arms wrapped securely around her waist and he buried his face into her chest.

Raven was immediately taken aback. She could feel the younger boy shaking against her, wetting her pajama top with his tears. For a moment, she stood there stock-still, hoping that Beast Boy would come to his senses, but when it was clear that he was truly upset, she gave him a few awkward pats on the back before slowly edging the both of them into her room.

Once the door was shut behind them, Raven continued to pat the green boy's back, trying not to give away how unsettled she was. It wasn't that she didn't like Beast Boy- he was actually one of the few friends she had- but she was unaccustomed to having someone come to her for comfort, much less being their shoulder to cry on.

When Beast Boy's tears finally ceased to flow, he slowly backed away from Raven, looking down at the ground in shame. He was absolutely horrified to realize that he'd been crying in front of Raven, much less on her. He hadn't even meant to come to Raven's room in the first place. He wasn't sure what had made him think that it was a good idea to disturb her this early in the morning, but he knew that he had to remove himself from the situation before things just got worse.

Still too embarrassed to look her in the eyes, Beast Boy continued to stare at the carpet, voicing his apology.

"Sorry," he sniffed, wiping his face with the backs of his hands. "I. . . I didn't mean to cry all over you like that. I. . . I'll just go. Sorry for waking you up."

Beast Boy made his way for the door, hiccuping and continuing to wipe his tear-covered face with his hands. Just as he was about to step out into the hallway, Raven called out, making him pause.

"Beast Boy, clearly something's bothering you. You can. . . tell me if you want, if you think it will make you feel better."

Raven hoped she sounded genuine. She wasn't used to the whole comforting thing yet and didn't want to make her friend feel any worse.

Beast Boy shrugged her off. "It was just a stupid dream. I'm fine."

Raven frowned slightly. "Why didn't you go to Robin, or Cyborg?" She didn't mean it in a demeaning manner, but more in a curious way, surprised that she had been the first one he'd come to. She figured he would be more comfortable sharing something like this with one of the boys rather than herself.

Beast Boy gave her an incredulous look. "And tell them I had a nightmare? Do you have any idea how much they would laugh at me?"

Raven considered this. "Okay. Well what about Starfire?"

"I don't think she would get it."

"What made you think I would understand?"

Beast Boy shrugged, not really having an answer. He didn't know why he'd gone to Raven. Maybe it was because the dream had been about her. Maybe it was because he valued her advice more than the others'. He didn't know for sure.

He shrugged once more, offering no answer.

Raven sighed. "Okay. Do you want to tell me about this dream? Clearly it's bothering you, but if you don't want to share, I can respect that."

Beast Boy shook his head. "No, it's just that. . ." He finished in a mumble that Raven could not decipher.

"Hmm?" She asked.

"Is-is it okay if I sleep here tonight?" He looked up at Raven, who had suddenly turned very red faced at the suggestion.

"N-not like in your bed or anything!" Beast Boy quickly tried to clarify. "Just maybe on the floor? I-I don't know if I'll be able to go back to sleep in my own room." The changeling looked back down at the carpet, feeling very vulnerable in front of his older teammate.

Raven thought for a moment. "Okay." She turned from Beast Boy to go look for an extra pillow and some blankets, but by the time she turned back around, the green shapeshifter was already curled up on the ground in the form of a cat, sound asleep.

A small smile forced its way onto her lips as the empath dropped the linens she had been holding and instead gently scooped up the green feline, going carefully so as not to wake him. Walking over to her bed, Raven gently deposited the sleeping kitten onto the pillow beside her, climbing into bed herself and pulling up the covers. She closed her eyes, listening to Beast Boy softly purring beside her before finally drifting off to sleep herself.

* * *

 

He watched as she fell, urging his body to move faster, to make that extra leap. He'd seen it coming; he should have reacted faster.

Her cloak snapped as wind rushed all around her, her flyaway purple locks streaming behind her head as she tumbled through the air, helpless and unable to stop her decent. The ground was rushing up fast, but Raven continued to spiral downward, unconscious, unaware of the danger she was in.

Beast Boy screamed, pleading her to wake up and stop the inevitable, meanwhile pushing himself to make it under her in time to catch her.

His muscles screamed in protest, his blood pounding in his ears as he pushed his body to its limits, running faster than he ever had. As Raven continued to tumble through the sky above, Beast Boy whispered prayers under his breath that she would be okay.

Just when it seemed like it was too late, Beast Boy leaped, catching Raven within his arms and shielding her head with his hands as the impact sent them both to the ground. As they hit the dirt, Raven was jostled out of her unconsciousness.

The changeling looked down at the empath as she groaned softly and her eyes fluttered open.

"Beast Boy?" She asked. He nodded, gently sweeping a stray piece of lavender hair behind her ear.

She stared back into his emerald eyes, seeing the fear and relief behind his jade irises. Slowly she brought her own hand up to his face, cupping his cheek before bringing her grey lips to his green and initiating a sweet kiss.

"Thank you," she whispered as she pulled away.

And it was with this reassuring dream that Beast Boy knew he no longer had to fear the nightmares threatening to claim him when he had the Queen of Darkness at his side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Protection.


	11. Protection: Day 4 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beast Boy will always protect Raven, no matter the circumstances.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow guys, sorry the update came a day late. School has really been picking up and been taking a lot out of me. I struggled a little bit with this one shot, (writer's block sucks), so I'm also sorry if it doesn't quite live up to the same quality my other chapters have had thus far. I really didn't have a lot of time to write this week, what with school work due, and though I really enjoy writing for you guys, school does take priority. 
> 
> Nevertheless, here is your weekly update: Protection. I do plan on continuing the weekly updates (Mondays will still be the day, with exception to this particular chapter). All I ask is that you guys are flexible and willing to work with me. Hope y'all enjoy this one.

Raven pulled his lips down to hers, fingers tangled in the damp verdant locks near the nape of her lover's neck. He groaned slightly into her mouth, kissing back before slowly pulling away and rolling onto the bed beside her. The empath and changeling lay side by side, panting slightly, bodies glistening with sweat as each came down from their respective post-coital highs.

After a few minutes, Beast Boy rolled onto his side, pulling Raven towards him and wrapped his arms around her torso so that her back was flush with his chest and stomach.

"I love you," he breathed against the skin of her neck, pressing his lips to the love bite he'd left there earlier that evening. Raven moaned quietly before turning over to face him.

"I love you too, Gar," she replied, ghosting her lips over his as she reciprocated the embrace. She finished pressing her lips to his, sealing one last kiss before succumbing to the tiredness surrounding her.

No sooner had Raven fallen asleep, Beast Boy quickly followed her into slumber, soft smiles written across the features of both.

* * *

 

When Raven awoke, she could feel someone's arm encircling her waist, and smiled upon seeing her boyfriend lying next to her, soundly asleep. Very slowly, Raven turned over, gently pressing her lips to his, trying not to wake him. Just as she was about to slip out from under his arm, it tightened its hold around her waist, pulling her back against his warm chest as his other arm came around, palm flattening against her bare stomach.

"Good morning, Rae," Beast Boy whispered, beginning to leave a trail of kisses along her shoulder and upper arm.

"Morning, Gar," she returned, closing her eyes as he began working his way up her neck.

His hands massaged her torso and he continued to pepper kisses over her neck and shoulders as the empath melted against him, quietly moaning her content. After a few minutes, Raven rolled over, pressing her lips to his before tossing aside the duvet. Beast Boy reached out for her waist again, but this time she evaded his grasp.

"Rae," he whined, "Stay with me."

Raven walked around her side of the bed, grabbing a towel and her robe from the coat stand in the corner of her room.

"Come on Gar, we have to get up. Nightwing has training scheduled for today and it starts within the next hour and a half." Raven pushed open the small door attaching her bedroom to the bathroom, stepping barefoot onto the cold tile.

Beast Boy groaned, sweeping his legs out from under the duvet and standing to his feet. He yawned, "Alright, but can I at least get in with you?"

Raven pondered his request. It was always risky letting Garfield shower with her. It was his favorite place to fool around, and knowing him, last night wouldn't have been enough to sate his rather large sexual appetite. He would definitely want to have sex with her in the shower, and Raven didn't know if she would be able to resist him if he made an advance. On the other hand, Gar did have a nice body, and Raven wouldn't give up a chance to ogle her lover, the images of rivulets of water running down the smooth apple-green skin of his back already running through her head.

"Alright," Raven relented, "but no playing around. We don't want to be late. You remember what happened last time."

The green man gave a chuckle. "Like Wing and Star haven't ever been late." The animorph rolled his eyes.

Raven playfully snapped her boyfriend with her towel, letting a small giggle escape as she did so. The green man yelped in response, glaring back at her as he rubbed his now sore backside and gathered up his robe and towel, following the empath into the bathroom.

Twenty minutes later, once both heroes had stepped out of the shower and were fully clothed, the couple began making their way down to the common room. Upon entering, they discovered Nightwing and Starfire at the kitchen table eating waffles, while Cyborg stood in the middle of the kitchen, the waffle iron heating as he mixed the next batch of batter.

"Morning dudes," Beast Boy greeted as him and Raven entered the common room.

Cyborg looked up from the waffle batter he'd been mixing and returned the greeting. "Hey B. Morning Rae."

The empath nodded at each of her teammates in turn as they greeted her and her boyfriend. When she saw the waffles, a small smile found its way to her lips.

"My day just keeps getting better," she said, helping herself to one of the Belgian delicacies.

Beast Boy walked into the kitchen, grabbing a plate from the cupboard to serve himself as well.

"Yours are over there," Cyborg said, gesturing to a smaller stack of waffles that had been set aside from the rest. "They're egg and dairy-free."

A grin broke out on the shapeshifter's face. "Thanks Cy!" He loaded his plate and then joined his three other teammates at the table.

Cyborg joined them shortly after, his plate stacked with six waffles, and the five superheroes began to eat. As Beast Boy and Starfire doused their breakfasts in syrup and mustard respectively, Nightwing gave the breakdown of that morning's workout schedule.

"We have a lot of great combo moves already, but I think running the course in pairs will allow us to improve the ones we have and maybe create some others," the team's leader said. "Starfire and I will run the course first, and then Raven and Beast Boy will run afterwards. Cyborg will go with me, then Starfire and Raven, and Cyborg and Beast Boy will finish off. That way everyone gets to run the course twice with a different partner each time."

Beast Boy groaned. "Dude, running the course once sucks ass. You really expect us all to go twice?"

Nightwing shot him a look. "You'll have a partner this time, which means you'll only have to do half the work of getting through the obstacles. It'll be the equivalent of running the course once by yourself."

"Yeah, but-" Raven elbowed her beau in the side.

"Stop while you're ahead, Beast Boy. Before he makes you run the course a third time."

Cyborg chuckled from the head of the table. "She's right, ya know."

A glance over at the Titan's leader revealed that in fact he did seem to be considering making Beast Boy run an additional time. It quickly made the shapeshifter reconsider complaining again.

"We'll head down to the course after breakfast," Nightwing said.

* * *

 

When Beast Boy eventually made it down to the obstacle course, lagging behind his teammates, he noticed Nightwing (who had been leading the group down from the Tower) already behind the controls.

"Alright Star, I initiated the countdown!" Nightwing called, jogging down to join his girlfriend at the starting line of the course. Meanwhile, Cyborg, Raven and Beast Boy continued the trek up to the control booth, replacing Nightwing as the two took off into the course.

As the couple ran, Cyborg manned the switches and levers that controlled the obstacles, trying new combinations that would push Nightwing and Starfire to their limits. Raven kept an eye on the timer, meanwhile holding a conversation with her boyfriend about their upcoming run on the course.

"-do not think that would very effective," she was saying, before she was cut off. The broach at the neckline of her cloak began blinking red at the same time Beast Boy's belt buckle and Cyborg's mechanical eye emitted a familiar chirping.

"We got trouble, y'all," Cyborg said, shutting down the course.

Quickly the obstacles down below began slowing and eventually screeched to a halt, allowing Nightwing and Starfire to join the three up in the control booth. As soon as all five Titans were assembled, Cyborg tapped his arm, pulling feed from the main computer inside ops.

"Mumbo is robbing a bank," Cyborg reported.

"Again?" Beast Boy complained. "Dude, doesn't he ever get sick of that?"

Nightwing clapped him on the shoulder. "You can't teach an old magician new tricks, Beast Boy. Now come on, Titans, go!"

Cyborg, Starfire, Nightwing and Raven immediately took off, leaving a groaning changeling to follow them down to the garage. Beast Boy really didn't want to go on any missions, especially not one against a minor villain like Mumbo, but it was better than training on the obstacle course, so he'd take it.

The Titans loaded into the T-car in the garage, Cyborg peeling out as soon as all four doors slammed shut. As they drove downtown, Nightwing gave them the breakdown of the information he'd received from the police, and they developed a battle plan. As they'd grown older together and fought together more and more as a team, they had learned one another's capabilities and in most cases were able to finish missions much faster than they had been able to before. Beast Boy anticipated this battle with Mumbo not to last more than an hour or so.

When the T-car came to a screeching stop outside the bank, all five heroes leapt from the vehicle, Starfire, Raven and Beast Boy taking to the skies while Cyborg and Nightwing readied sonic cannons and bird-a-rangs down below.

"Titans, go!" The black-haired leader yelled, flinging a black projectile in Mumbo's direction.

Beast Boy surveyed the scene from above in the form of a hawk. Mumbo was causing his usual mischief, having tied up all of the bank tellers with colorful scarfs he'd no doubt pulled from his sleeve, and was currently using his wand to conjure an endless supply of cash from an ATM. The blue-skinned man was cackling with glee, spinning jauntily to avoid starbolts, sonic cannon blasts and bird-a-rangs.

Quickly, Beast Boy dove in, seeing an opening, and attempted to grab the wand in his clawed feet. He knew that once either Mumbo's hat or Mumbo's wand was gone, he was defeated, and he wanted to end this fight quickly so he could go back to the Tower, kick back and have a lazy day.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem Mumbo was so willing to acquiesce. As soon as Beast Boy was in range, Mumbo removed his hat, tilting it towards the changeling and a dozen white doves flew out, forcing him to change his flight plan.

Meanwhile, down below, Raven closed her eyes, focusing her energy before letting loose with an, "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!" and sending a storm of cheque books flying at Mumbo. Before they could reach him however, Mumbo waved his wand, causing the books to fall to the ground in front of him.

"Sorry dear, you'll have to do better than that!" The villain teased. "Mumbo Jumbo!" Out of his sleeve came a deck of playing cards, each one spinning through the air like a miniature saw blade, right towards Raven.

With a gasp, Raven quickly wrapped her cloak around herself, disappearing into darkness, but not before one of the atrocious aces managed to bury itself in her forearm. She reappeared next to Beast Boy, who had landed after evading the doves, and winced, pulling the playing card from her arm. For cheap sheets of card stock, Mumbo's deck was deadly.

Garfield looked over at her in concern, having seen her flinch.

"I'm fine," Raven reassured him. "Now, how about something with quills?"

Beast Boy immediately caught on. It was a move he and Raven had come up with shortly after dating; one he had nicknamed the 'Quill Drill', wherein he would transform into a porcupine, and Raven would use her powers to fling him at their enemy, often times causing enough of a distraction to their adversary that Nightwing, Starfire or Cyborg could finish him off with a sonic blast, starbolt or exploding disk. It was pretty effective, and since they had been practicing it, Raven's aim had gotten a lot better.

Once transformed into the small, prickly creature, Beast Boy squeaked at his girlfriend and braced himself for his flight. It really was amazing to him how fast Raven could hurtle him through the air in this form, and while it was exhilarating, Beast Boy often worried about missing his target and sticking someone else instead. That certainly would not be pleasant.

Luckily, Raven's aim was superb, and Beast Boy did meet his target. . . or at least the backside of his target. Immediately Mumbo jumped five feet into the air, yelping and reaching behind himself to dislodge Beast Boy from where he had stuck his rump.

"I know they say show biz can be a little risqué, but to me, it seems more risky than anything," the blue magician grumbled. He cast a glare in Raven's direction.

"A useless assistant isn't much of an asset if she doesn't follow the script. Mumbo Jumbo!" The silly showman pointed his wand in Raven's direction.

"Well folks! It's time that Mumbo made his great escape, and I do hope that my dear assistant becomes an expert in this art as well, or she may not live to see another show!"

When Beast Boy assumed his human form once more and caught sight of Raven, his blood immediately began boiling and his heart raced. His girlfriend was encased in a glass cell, filled to the top with water, with chains encircling her wrists, ankles, arms, legs and torso. A ring with a dozen or so keys sat at the bottom of the tank, out of reach. A look of panic was painted across the sorceress' face, and Garfield knew she was in no condition to use her powers under this amount of stress.

While Raven didn't admit to being scared a lot, she had trusted Beast Boy with her three biggest fears: small spaces, suffocation, and losing control of her powers. The first, Raven had told him, came from feeling a lack of control over her life. Her very birth had determined her destiny, and no matter how much Raven could control in her day to day life, it wasn't enough, because it wasn't control over what she most desired to decide for herself. She didn't want to fit into the box everyone expected her to fit into.

Her fear of suffocation derived much from the same reasons. Raven felt as though she were drowning in despair. In her nightmares, the fires of her father's hellish domain sucked the air from her lungs until she was gasping. Hands pinned her down and wrapped around her throat, cutting her off from the one thing that would keep her alive.

Mumbo's escape artist trap targeted all three of Raven's deepest fears. And Beast Boy was furious. No one hurt Raven. No one.

He could quickly feel himself shifting, clothes tearing as he took on his most powerful form. Usually Beast Boy kept this part of him hidden, as even though it lived within him, the Beast still scared him to his core, but right now, Beast Boy was willing to give up his control, if only momentarily. He needed to protect Raven and hurt Mumbo worse than he had hurt the beautiful sorceress.

From there, it all became a blur of teeth, claws and fur. Beast Boy could subconsciously hear voices yelling at him to stop, that was enough, but his anger got the best of him. The Beast slashed at Mumbo until the man was a bleeding, indistinguishable mess on the floor, reluctantly giving back control to his human host after letting out a victorious howl.

"Beast Boy!" Nightwing sounded appalled.

When the changeling looked down at the damage his nonhuman half had done, he felt bile rise in his throat. He had felt justified in the moment, but looking at the blue magician now, Beast Boy knew he was going to have some permanent scars.

* * *

 

The ride back to the Tower was filled with yelling and a lot of threats from Nightwing.

"Beast Boy, you're a part of this team, but if you ever do something like that again, you're out of here. As heroes, we can not have that type of reputation. Your behavior today was inexcusable. You need to get that Beast under control."

Despite the threats, the Beast returned the next mission they went on.

Adonis had pinned Raven to the ground, and just seeing that nasty, weakling of a man hitting on his girlfriend was enough to rile Beast Boy up.

The Beast returned every mission they went on for a month before Nightwing could actually bring himself to enforce the ground rules he had laid down. Beast Boy hadn't maimed anyone since Mumbo, however, he had come very close and probably would have caused serious bodily harm to many of them, if Raven had not been there to assure the Beast that any damage she had received in battle was not worth bloody retribution. Once Beast Boy had gone a month without reining in control over his Beast however, Nightwing told him to pack his bags and leave until he'd handled the problem.

"It's clear you can't control yourself in that form," Nightwing told him, as the green man stood by the elevator, packed suitcase at his feet. "It's lucky we've had Raven around to rein you in, but we can't afford another Mumbo accident. You need to fix your problem. Until then, I'm sorry Beast Boy, but you're off the team."

It hurt to hear it, but Beast Boy knew Nightwing was right. He didn't know what was up with the Beast inside of him. It had been restless since the fight with Mumbo, and was especially wild whenever Raven was around. If Raven got even the slightest bit injured in battle, no matter how much Beast Boy tried, he had absolutely no control over himself. The Beast took over and that was that. He knew he needed to fix the problem before he could come back.

Sighing glumly, Garfield heaved his bag into the elevator and was about to step on himself, when Raven's voice suddenly cut across the common room.

"Garfield! You can't leave! It's not your fault!" Both Beast Boy and the Titan's leader turned toward Raven with lifted brows.

"The Beast isn't his fault," Raven tried to explain to Nightwing. "I-I'm-"

Beast Boy took a step towards his girlfriend. Usually she had no problems articulating her ideas, but now she seemed scared to even get out a single word. He could feel the animal inside of him stirring because of his proximity to the sorceress, but he managed to tamp it down; Raven wasn't in any danger. He was overreacting.

"You've been protecting me. Us." Shyly, Raven brought a pale hand up and rested it on her stomach. Slowly, her amethyst eyes rose up to meet the shapeshifter's own green. "Garfield, you've known all along. I'm pregnant."

The bomb fell slowly, and then everything exploded all at once.

"Raven, are you serious?" Nightwing demanded.

Beast Boy himself could do nothing more than stare at his girlfriend's stomach, pale hand still resting there over her leotard. If she was pregnant, she wasn't showing yet.

The empath merely nodded her head. "Garfield's subconsciously known since I conceived. We fought Mumbo the day after. This whole time, he's been trying to protect me and our baby."

Raven gently took her boyfriend's hands into her own. "We're going to be parents, Gar."

Slowly his eyes rose up to meet hers, and then he was laughing joyously. He kissed Raven for all he was worth, and then bent down to kiss his girlfriend's still flat stomach. "We're going to be parents," he said it with awe.

"Yes," Raven replied. "And I already know that you're going to be a great father. You've been protecting us, both of us, this whole time."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Firsts.


	12. Firsts: Day 5 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cyborg's got some good blackmail on the newest couple in the Tower.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back again with another chapter for y'all! Hope you enjoy.

It was truly shocking how much private information the Titans knew about each other, most of which was only remembered because it made good blackmail material. Cyborg especially, was notorious for this, using his half-robotic body to record, take pictures and save some of the most embarrassing moments in Titans history. Stored in the hard drive of the computer half of his brain were some not-so-flattering pictures of Robin the week he had run out of hair gel, a recording of Beast Boy after he had gotten the chicken pox and had hilariously been stuck as a chicken until he was well again, and even some pictures of Raven after returning home from her numerous trips to the 'mall of shopping' with Starfire; but nothing had to be worse than the dirt the android had on the two couples of the Tower. With the multitude of videos and photos he had, Cyborg could pretty much get any of his teammates to do whatever he wanted, given the right motivations.

Since they had gotten together, Raven and Beast Boy had taken their relationship rather slowly and carefully, neither having been in a real relationship before and because of potential complications with their powers. As a result, it was always a shock to each of the other Titans when they saw the couple make a new milestone for the first time.

For Starfire and Robin, it wasn't such a surprise. From day one when the alien princess had first kissed the dumbstruck Boy Wonder to learn English, it was inevitable that the two would eventually get together. As for Beast Boy and Raven, no one had seen it coming. It had happened slowly, but there was no doubt there had always been a bond there. It had just taken awhile for the two to see it. As a result, anytime the couple made any progress, Cyborg was there to catch their first moments on camera.

* * *

 

  
The first time they had kissed in front of everyone, it was as if time had stopped itself. Robin had dropped the files he'd been holding, papers scattering all over the floor, the caped teen not even bothered to pick them up. Starfire had ceased cooking, the gurgling purple substance in the pot on the stove overflowing and slowly eating away at anything it touched. Cyborg's jaw had dropped completely, and even some of his circuits had shorted out. Luckily, it hadn't prevented him from taking a picture first.

The kissing couple had been drawn from their moment the second the flash from Cyborg's camera went off. Both Beast Boy and Raven pulled apart from each other abruptly, blushing a deep carmine as they noticed their friends' eyes on them. Raven accidentally lost control of her powers from embarrassment, shattering one of the lightbulbs overhead. Beast Boy immediately withdrew his hands from the sorceress' hips, reaching one behind the back of his head to rub his neck nervously as he let out an embarrassed laugh.

Cyborg chuckled at the discomfort of his two best friends while Robin cleared his throat and Starfire let out a girly squeal. The three had seen the signs overtime; the handholding, the subtle glances across the table at meals, the excuses to sit next to one another on movie night; but this was the first real display of affection the three had ever seen from the newest couple, and they were happy for their teammates.

Unfortunately for the android, the couple themselves were not very happy with the situation. Raven's powers lashed out once again, shredding the picture Cyborg now held in his metallic hand, tiny pieces fluttering to the ground as her powers receded.

"Glad that's cleared up," the empath said monotonously to the three shell-shocked Titans. "Come on Gar." The empath grabbed the green boy's hand, dragging him out of the room behind her as their teammates continued to stare on in awe.

What the newly pronounced couple didn't realize however, was that Cyborg had already downloaded and saved the image of their first kiss on his hard drive.

* * *

 

The first time Beast Boy and Raven had gone on a date was also cataloged in the deep recesses of Cyborg's hard drive.

Beast Boy had been pacing the common room for the past twenty minutes, nervously rambling about the date he was about to go on with the Tower's resident empath. He had cleaned up surprisingly well, hair combed back neatly and held in place with the help of some of Robin's hair gel, a lavender button up adorned by a black tie, black slacks and neatly shined dress shoes to complete the look. Unfortunately, the appearance was ruined by the nervous expression and pacing of the green teenager, despite the assurance from his friends that the date would go just fine.

"What if she doesn't like the restaurant?" Beast Boy voiced his worries to Cyborg and Robin who were waiting in the common room with him.

"Calm down, B," Cyborg tried to reassure. "Raven'll love any restaurant you take her to."

The green boy still didn't look any calmer, continuing to voice his concerns. "What if I screw up and say something stupid?"

It was Robin's turn to give his words of wisdom. "Beast Boy, it'll be fine. I've said a lot of stupid things to Star and she's never held them against me. I doubt Raven would hold you to anything you accidentally blurt out."

The green teenager contemplated his teammates' words for a few seconds, however he just could not quell the jumpy, nervous energy racing through his body. There were just too many things that could go wrong and he needed this date to be perfect.

Beast Boy continued his pacing, thoughts running a hundred miles an hour. He began to voice another one of his concerns. "What if-"

The poor changeling was cut off by the metallic hiss of the common room door sliding open. Immediately, a jubilant alien princess was admitted to the room, followed by a hesitant and blushing Raven. Starfire grabbed the empath's hand, dragging her forward to face her teammates.

"Does she not look most beautiful?" The alien asked, gesturing wildly to the still crimson-faced empath.

Raven had donned a rather elegant outfit for her's and Beast Boy's date. A simple, yet stunning, strapless, midnight blue dress hugged her curves in all the right places, hanging down to her knees and a small, silver pendant dangled from a chain around her neck, sparkling in the light reflected from the bulbs overhead. A shiny grey handbag and flats complimented the necklace and a light dusting of pale pink blush and navy eyeshadow made the empath's amethyst eyes pop. Her short violet locks had been carefully curled into dainty ringlets, framing her face and showing off a rare, but dazzling smile when she saw the sharply dressed young man in front of her.

"Wow Rae," the changeling smiled as his emerald eyes swept over his date, taking in her stunning appearance. "You're gorgeous."

Raven's blush deepened considerably as she returned the compliment to her boyfriend. "You look nice too."

Beast Boy beamed as he took the pale sorceress' hand in his and led her out of the Tower, both Titans failing to notice the blinking red light of Cyborg's cybernetic eye, catching the whole thing on video.

* * *

 

The couple's first "I love you"s were brought about by dire circumstances, however Cyborg had caught them on film regardless. It was funny really, how such a life-pressing situation had been what brought out the statement for the first time. Not many other couples could say they'd had the same experience.

The team had been off on a mission, a rather simple one it had seemed until guns had come into play. The Teen Titans had been called upon to save the city once again from a gang of petty thieves. The mission had been going successfully, all of the robbers apprehended except one, who had been hoping to make a quick getaway. Beast Boy however, with his superb animal instincts, had sensed the sneaky man trying to escape and had taken it upon himself to bring the thief to justice.

The shapeshifter had taken on the form of a cheetah to catch up to the slippery crook and then had shifted to a Bengal tiger, trying to frighten the man into submission. Beast Boy gave a terrifying roar, slowly advancing toward the man, counting on the fact that he would drop the sack of jewels he had stolen and surrender. What the changeling had not counted on was the fact that the crook had hidden a .38 caliber handgun in the waistband of his outfit.

Before he had any time to react, two bullets had imbedded themselves in Beast Boy's left flank, forcing him to revert back to his human form with a cry of pain, before collapsing to his knees. He took in a shuddering breath, pressing both of his hands to his wounds, only to have them come back covered in red. Seeing the blood made the changeling quite dizzy, causing him to faint and fall completely to the pavement.

At the sound of his cry, the four other Titans turned towards their fallen comrade, gasps of horror escaping each of them. Forgetting the running robber, each of the heroes flew or ran towards the unconscious changeling.

Raven reached him first. "Garfield!" She cried desperately, falling to her knees beside her boyfriend. She lifted him by the shoulders, beginning to shake him, hoping it would drag him back to consciousness.

Eventually the injured boy stirred, a groan of intense pain escaping his lips. His emerald eyes flickered open, landing on his girlfriend, who was in the process of trying to staunch the heavy flow of blood from his side with her cloak. Upon noticing the missing article of clothing, the green boy slurred, "Ravnnn, wherrs ya cloak?"

Raven met his dazed green eyes with her own tear-filled lavender ones. "Gar, shhh." The girl caressed Beast Boy's cheek with her hand. She continued to press on his wounds, but it was proving futile as the navy material began to squish between her fingers.

"Please, Gar," the girl pleaded, seeing his eyelids begin to flutter.

The green teenager began to cough, tiny flecks of red staining his now pale lips. Raven's tears began to flow more rapidly at the sight, the girl becoming hysterical.

"Somebody call an ambulance!" She screamed.

"On it, Rae!" Cyborg called back, already on the phone with a dispatcher.

Beast Boy's coughing began to get worse, a string of blood and saliva now dripping from his lower lip. Raven wiped it away with the blue cuff of her leotard sleeve, cupping his quickly paling face in her hands. "Garfield, stay with me, please," the empath begged, tears now beginning to fall down onto her boyfriend's face. His eyelids continued to flicker, but it seemed to have registered in his fogged mind that she was crying.

"Rrrae, don' cry," the boy struggled to lift his arm so that he could brush the tears from her cheek. As his fingers agonizingly passed over her pale face, a trail of red was left in their wake.

"Oh, Garfield," Raven sobbed, dropping her purple-haired head to the boy's chest. "Please don't leave me. You can't leave me. Gar, please! I love you!"

At the girl's confession, all of her teammates paused, never having expected the empath to be the first to admit her love for the green boy. All three had expected it to be the other way around, with the changeling confessing first and Raven not returning the sentiment until days later. It came as a shock that someone who had been taught not to feel was now expressing her feelings towards the one she cared most about.

Beast Boy struggled to form a coherent sentence. "L-love ya t-too Rrrae."

Raven lifted her head from his chest and gave him a watery smile, cupping his face in her hands once again. His eyelids were dangerously close to closing, and the boy was on the brink of unconsciousness. Raven quickly brought his face to hers, fearing it might be the last time she'd ever get the opportunity to feel his lips on her own. As she kissed him, Raven poured out all of her passion and love into the movement, ignoring the taste of Beast Boy's blood in her mouth and the wailing sirens and the shouts of the EMTs in the background. She solely focused on the connection she felt with him and their love until she was dragged away from him, kicking and screaming as the EMTs strapped the injured boy to a gurney and loaded him into the back of the ambulance.

Raven turned toward the one who had pulled her away, Cyborg, and buried her face into his metallic chest, sobbing as the sound of the sirens faded into the distance.

* * *

 

After the two had spent their first night together, Cyborg had been given the duty to wake both Beast Boy and Raven for training. He had complained at first, but in reality the cybernetic teen actually didn't mind the task all that much. Raven was a relatively light sleeper and he could think of a million interesting and humiliating ways to wake the changeling. What Cyborg had not expected however, was to find the two sharing a bed.

As he strolled down the hall towards Raven's room, the android hummed to himself, thinking about the bright day ahead of him. After training, he could eat a ginormous breakfast, then kick back, play some video games and maybe add a few tuneups to the T-car.

Once he had reached the empath's door, he raised a metal fist and knocked nicely (no need to have a repeat of the first time he had entered Raven's room). After waiting patiently for a few seconds, he knocked again and called through the door.

"Hey, Rae? You up yet?" The teen pressed his mechanical ear up against the door. He was met with silence.

"Rae?" He called again. "Raven, you okay?"

Again, he was met with silence. The android began to panic. It was very unusual for Raven to sleep in this late. Normally, she and Robin were the first two up. And if she had been in meditation, she'd have answered him by now.

"Raven? I'm coming in," he declared, a little uncertainly.

Cyborg punched the manual override into the panel beside the empath's door and it slid open with a low hiss. He quietly entered the room. As soon as Raven's bed came into his line of view, he stopped in his tracks.

Occupying Raven's bed was not one, but two bodies, curled up together, both in a peaceful sleep. Upon closer inspection, the robot could see that they were Beast Boy and the sorceress herself.

The changeling was bare-chested, lying in a supine position, one arm behind his head to create a makeshift pillow, the other wrapped protectively around his bed companion. Raven herself was wearing a skinny-strapped black tank-top, head on her boyfriend's chest, arms wrapped loosely around his torso. Underneath the duvet, the couple's legs comfortably tangled with one another, creating for a loving embrace.

Cyborg let out a huge "aww" at the sight. He had after all, always been a hopeless romantic at heart.

Having apparently heard him, one of Beast Boy's ears twitched and the shapeshifter let out a long breath, shifting slightly in the bed. Cyborg immediately slapped his hands over his mouth. He prayed that neither member of the couple would wake up. Once Beast Boy had finished getting comfortable again, Cyborg mentally let out a sigh of relief. Even though he had been ordered to, he just couldn't bring himself to ruin such a romantic sight. Instead, he wanted to capture the moment before it was ruined.

Using his upgraded cybernetics, the half-robot quickly snapped a photo and then slipped from the room.

Shortly after the android had left, both Raven and Beast Boy found themselves slowly wakening. After a round of short yawns and sighs, sleepy green irises met purple, and a soft smile formed on each face. Beast Boy's grip around Raven tightened and the empath tucked her head under his chin, snuggling into his chest.

"Morning, Gar," she mumbled into the hollow of his neck.

"Good morning, Raven," the changeling returned, running his fingers through the empath's lavender locks.

The two remained in their embrace for several minutes before getting up, regretting having to leave each other's warmth. Both only hoped that they would be able to return to it once again, when night fell.

* * *

 

Of all their firsts, the morning after they had 'done it' for the first time had to be Cyborg's favorite. After all, it was the best blackmail material he had of the couple and it never failed to motivate the two whenever they were being particularly stubborn.

At that point, Raven and Beast Boy had been dating for a little over two years, the changeling now nineteen and Raven, twenty-one. They were the two youngest Titans in the Tower and had been taking their relationship slowly step by step. Last night had been when both the changeling and empath reached the climax of their relationship and had decided to take the next step.

That morning, Beast Boy had practically skipped into the kitchen, a huge grin lighting his face. He had greeted each of his team members with a cheerier than normal greeting and then had proceeded to cook himself some tofu eggs and boil some water for his girlfriend's tea. The empath had not yet entered the room, and Beast Boy was humming as he poured a carton of artificial eggs into the frying pan on the stove.

Just as Beast Boy pulled his pan of scrambled eggs and Raven's whistling kettle off of the stove, the empath entered the room, a small smile on her lips, hood down, exposing it to her friends. But the most noticeable difference about the sorceress was the color of her cloak. Instead of the typical navy blue, the material hanging around her shoulders was a blinding white.

Raven strolled into the room, immediately going over to her boyfriend, who was now searching through the cupboards over the counter for her box of herbal tea. The young woman wrapped her arms around the lean waist of the changeling and placed a tender kiss on the side of his neck before balancing on her tip-toes and whispering, "Good morning, Gar," into his ear.

Beast Boy grabbed the box of tea before closing the cupboard and turning towards his girlfriend, kissing her in greeting before handing her the box. Raven smiled, proceeding to make her tea as the changeling dished up his eggs and sat at the table. Raven joined them shortly, taking a seat next to the young green man and across the table from Robin and Starfire.

"Looks like you two slept well last night," Robin commented.

Beast Boy nodded his head. "Best sleep I've ever had. How'd you tell?" The changeling stuffed his mouth full with tofu eggs.

Cyborg snickered from the head of the table. "The hickey on your neck is a dead giveaway, BB."

Both members of the couple began to blush. Beast Boy began choking on his eggs.

"Yes," Starfire piped up, "I have noticed that Raven's cloak is not the usual color. Tell me friend, what has caused this change?"

Raven blushed even harder. "My cloak changes to white whenever I am in complete control of my emotions."

Robin raised an eyebrow in question, sending the sorceress a sideways look.

Beast Boy gave a wolfish grin (which he was unsurprisingly very good at) as he ran his fingers slowly up Raven's thigh under the table, going unseen by the others.

"What Rae means to say," Beast Boy chimed in, "is that all of her emotions are happy cuz we had fun last night."

Raven gave an involuntary giggle as Beast Boy's fingers continued their trail up her thigh and over her side. She immediately pulled up her cowl, seeing her friends give her and her boyfriend strange looks.

"Stop it, Garfield," the sorceress hissed lowly, slapping the changeling's hand away.

The green man pouted, then said, "Come on, Rae! I'm only saying what's true."

Raven's flush grew even darker. Sadly enough for the empath, it was even easier to notice given that the white material of her hood didn't create as much of a shadow over her face as the normally darker material did. She glanced down at her lap, hoping that her friends would get the clue and turn their gazes away from her.

"Oh Raven, do not worry. It is nothing to be ashamed of. Fiancé Richard and I have participated in the sexual intercourse on numerous occasions," Starfire gave the purple-haired, young woman a smile.

Robin blushed, not having expected his future wife to reveal that kind of personal information. The Boy Wonder quickly glanced down at his meal, hoping the attention would stay focused on the younger couple.

Cyborg decided to butt into the conversation once more. "Yeah Rae, don't worry about it. Ya know, y'all actually did me a favor. Speaking of which, ya owe me fifty bucks Robin." The cybernetic man turned towards the caped man to his right.

Grumbling, Robin forked over two crumpled twenties and a ten, muttering curses under his breath.

Raven scowled at the two men. "You two placed bets on when you thought Garfield and I would have sex?"

Cyborg laughed. "Well yeah girl, I mean, it took you two long enough to get comfortable just sharing a room. Rob and Star did it for the first time for their one year anniversary," at this point, the blush returned to Robin's face, " and me an' Bee did it after being together for less than a year."

Both Raven and Beast Boy's eyes widened at all of the private information that had just been disclosed. The couple gave each other wary glances.

"TMI," the changeling mumbled under his breath.

Cyborg gave the two a smirk. "Oh come on B, it's not like you're exactly innocent anymore."

Beast Boy's face turned a dark puce and it took Raven to step forward to save her boyfriend's dignity.

"That's enough of this conversation." The empath stood, taking her cup and Beast Boy's plate over to the sink before proceeding to drag him out of the room. Just as they reached the door, Cyborg called out to the changeling one last time.

"Hey, B?" Beast Boy turned, fearing what his cybernetic friend's next words would be.

"Just don't get her pregnant yet. 'First child' is not a milestone that needs to be reached anytime soon."

With one last blush from the couple, they left the room, door sliding closed with a hiss behind them, friends in peals of laughter on the other side.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Crush (Day 6, 2015).


	13. Crush: Day 6 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Titans host a sleepover and Raven gets roped into a game of C.R.U.S.H.

"Who would like to play the C.R.U.S.H.?" Starfire asked excitedly, looking around at the other girls gathered in her room.

Tonight was the annual Titans sleepover. Each year, despite certain vehement protests (Raven), the Teen Titans always held a grand sleepover at the Tower where all Titans were invited to catch up with others and to hang out. This year, Starfire had insisted that the girls' half of the slumber party be held in her room, whereas the boys were camped out in the common room. There had been a rather large turnout, sixteen Titans showing up in total; six girls, ten boys. It was a large enough crowd to give Raven a headache and despite even more protests when Starfire had asked her to attend the girls' party, the empath had been dragged into the exuberant alien's room anyway.

Which led to the current situation. Raven, Bumblebee, Kole, Argent and Jinx sat upon multi-colored sleeping bags stationed on Starfire's floor while the joyous alien herself bounced upon her circular bed, beryl eyes looking down upon the others in anticipation.

Argent raised her hand. "What is 'C.R.U.S.H.?'" She asked.

A devious smirk appeared on Bumblebee's face. "Have y'all ever played M.A.S.H.?" She asked, slipping out of her yellow sleeping bag and standing up.

Jinx stood up near her own purple sleeping bag, a Cheshire grin lighting up her features. "I wouldn't so much say it's like M.A.S.H. as it is a mix between Truth or Dare and Strip Poker."

"I'm out," Raven said immediately. Anytime the words "strip", "stripping" or "stripper" were included in a sentence, Raven knew she did not want to get involved.

"Aww, come on Raven," Bee protested. "We all know about that little crush you've been harboring for Beast Boy since we got back from Paris." The leader of the Titans East team raised an eyebrow expectantly, crossing her arms over her chest, as if challenging Raven to deny the fact.

The empath blushed, but didn't dispute Bee's statement. "I still don't see what this game has to do with my feelings towards Beast Boy," she said, mirroring Bee's body language.

The yellow-and-black clad girl giggled. "Girl, its got everything to do with your crush on BB. And Jinx's collection of roses," Bumblebee cast a shit-eating grin at the pink-haired sorceress, "and the way Kole's been makin' goo-goo eyes at Jericho," here she pointed a finger at the youngest girl, "and Argent's mysterious fascination with Hot Spot, and the budding romance between our girl Star and the Boy Wonder." Bee wiggled her eyebrows suggestively at Starfire.

Jinx smirked as she quipped back, "And your incessant teasing of poor Cyborg?"

The African American girl blushed, but quickly said, "Anyway, C.R.U.S.H. is an acronym for Confess, Reveal, Undress, Smooch, Hug. Like you do in M.A.S.H., someone draws a spiral until the other person says stop. Then you count the rings to see which letter you get. A C, which stands for Confess, means that you have to go tell your crush that you like them. An R, or Reveal, means that you have to answer a question that the group asks, kinda like answering a Truth in Truth or Dare. U is Undress, which is pretty self-explanatory; you have to take off a piece of clothing. For an S, Smooch, you have to go and lay one on your crush. And H is Hug, which means you gotta go hug your crush."

Raven remained resolute. "I'm not playing."

"Oh, but Raven, you must play!" Starfire begged. "The C.R.U.S.H. is a tradition at female gatherings such as this." The alien turned big beryl eyes at Raven. They shone with innocence.

Reluctantly Raven was forced to give in. Starfire was too nice a person to say no to.

"Fine," the purple-haired girl acquiesced, "But I'm going last."

Whoops went up from the other five girls. Starfire flew over to her desk to fetch paper and pens.

"Alright," Bee rubbed her palms together gleefully, "Why don't you go first Star?"

The Tamaranian princess giggled as Bumblebee began drawing a spiral on a sheet of paper. After a few seconds, Starfire gave the command to stop and the Titans East leader counted up the rings.

"Eight rings, Star. U; undress!" Bee shouted.

Starfire blushed, but removed a boot nonetheless.

"Alright," Bee scanned the room for her next victim. "Argent! You're next."

Argent waited awhile before telling Bee to stop.

"Twelve rings. Reveal! Huddle up ladies!"

Starfire, Kole, Jinx and Bee squished together in a circle and began whispering. Argent merely leaned back on her sleeping bag, waiting for the dreadful question she was sure to be asked, while Raven watched on, not wanting to take part in the 'huddle'. When the four girls broke apart, all of them were giggling.

Jinx's face lit up in a smirk. "If you were to have sex with Hot Spot, would you want his powers on or off?"

Though it was a personal question (and slightly inappropriate if you ask Raven), Argent seemed to lack the ability to get embarrassed. "I would want them off, obviously. I don't think third degree burns would feel very sexy," she said, continuing to lean back against her sleeping bag.

"Interesting," Jinx commented, "but it would make things in the bedroom steamy." A smirk found its way to her lips.

"I suppose," Argent entertained the notion, "but I'm still not a fan of melting. It's similar to asking Raven if she would want Beast Boy to transform during sex. I personally don't believe she's _that_ type."

Unfortunately Raven lacked Argent's ability and a huge cherry blush stained her face. "No, I'm not that type," she affirmed. "Can we move on? Argent answered the question."

Bee giggled. "Alright, Kole!" She took up the pencil and began drawing.

"Annnnnnnd. . . Stop." Kole waited as Bee counted up the rings.

"Ten."

"This is gonna be embarrassing," the pink-haired girl complained.

"It's just a hug, hon. It could have been worse," Argent said offhandedly, inspecting her nails.

"Fine." Kole stood up and walked to Starfire's door, the other girls following behind.

They trekked out to the common room as a group, however once the boys were in sight, Bumblebee, Jinx, Argent, Starfire and Raven paused just before the entrance, using the shadows of the hallway to conceal them from sight. They had a clear line of vision of the boys, sitting on the couch playing video games. It appeared that Aqualad and Beast Boy had the controllers (there only being two of them), and the other boys had taken sides to root them on. Robin, Cyborg and Hot Spot stood behind Beast Boy, while Mas, Menos, Speedy and Kid Flash stood behind Aqualad. Jericho was sitting slightly off to the side, not being one to partake in the noisy entertainment. Slowly Kole approached the side of the couch where the green-eyed boy was stationed.

"Hi, Jericho," she greeted shyly.

Just as shyly, he waved back.

"Those two are so cute I want to puke," Jinx commented. "They should spice things up."

Bee elbowed her. "Like you and KF aren't at the same place. Girl, you haven't even kissed him yet."

"You haven't kissed Cyborg."

The yellow-and-black clad girl laughed. "Sparky doesn't know it yet, but by the end of this evening, I plan on getting an S at least once."

Argent shushed them. "Be quiet or you'll miss it."

When the girls turned their attention back to Kole, she had her arms wrapped around a red-faced Jericho whose own arms were stuck straight out to the sides in 'airplane mode', clearly having been surprised by the girl's actions. Ever so slowly, the shock wore off and the boy brought his arms in to wrap around Kole too. When they broke apart, there were shy smiles on each of their faces.

Hurriedly Kole scurried back over to the group in the hallway, Starfire giggling joyously, and Bee, Jinx and Argent with smirks on their lips. Raven was more or less unaffected by the display she had seen.

When they got back to Starfire's room, Jinx had her turn and ended up with a U. Without preamble, she removed one of the black hair bands holding her hair in place, letting one side of the horseshoe droop. It looked odd, but the sorceress seemed unperturbed.

When it came time for Bumblebee's turn, Jinx took the paper and pencil. She counted seven rings when prompted, giving the African American girl an R.

Once again, Starfire, Kole, Jinx and Argent huddled together to determine a question worthy of being asked.

"So, what is it about Cyborg that you like?" Argent asked.

"Is it his car?" Jinx teased. "Because you know what they say about guys who care so much about their vehicles."

Bee blushed red. "He's sweet, okay! And he ain't afraid to have some sense smacked into him by a woman." She nodded her head. "And we all know every man needs that."

"Ain't that the truth," Jinx agreed. She passed the paper back to Bee.

Raven watched as Bee began drawing a spiral. It was her turn now, and she really hoped she didn't end up with a C or an S. She waited awhile for Bee to draw, and then reluctantly told the girl to stop, counting the rings for herself as soon as she did.

She sighed in relief when she counted thirteen rings. With a scowl, she unclasped her cloak and dropped it onto the floor next to her.

The next round of the game went by rather quickly, and Raven received an R. The question asked had been about Beast Boy's green skin.

"It doesn't bother you?" Kole had asked. "It's such an odd color."

If Raven was being honest, she had never really thought about the color of Beast Boy's skin. A lot of superheroes had oddly colored skin. Herself, Argent and Jinx were pale as ghosts and Starfire was tanned bronze. If anything, Beast Boy's green skin just made him his own unique person, and she told the group as much.

They continued the game for five more rounds. Luckily, Raven had not gotten a C (like Jinx), or an S (like Bee and Starfire). Argent was down to her bra and panties, having gotten an U each of the five rounds (with odds like those, Raven was suspicious Jinx had rigged the game), and Raven and Kole had each gotten two Us and three Rs. Now it was Raven's turn again.

"Stop."

"Ooohhh! Raven! Someone got a C!" Bee squealed obnoxiously.

The purple-haired girl blanched. She had gone this whole game without getting either of the dreaded letters. Now she had to go tell Beast Boy about her feelings towards him. Jinx had already confessed to Kid Flash, so some of the novelty of the C had worn off on the group, but the other sorceress had been lucky. Wally's feelings towards Jinx had been obvious from the start. KF clearly felt something for her, being that he was constantly sending her roses, but Beast Boy likely didn't have any clue as to how Raven actually felt about him. Which meant that she was much more likely to be met with rejection than the pink-eyed girl.

Said sorceress of bad luck grabbed her arm and dragged her towards the door when she noticed Raven hesitating. "Come on Rae, if I had to do it, you have to do it too."

The other four girls followed the sorceresses out to the common room, squealing. Meanwhile, Raven was trying to contain the embarrassment as much as she could. Right now, she was really regretting having chosen her cloak as her first U.

When they did eventually make it out to the common room again, the boys seemed to be expecting them. And really they should have been by now. Already Kole, Argent, Bee, Jinx and Starfire had interrupted at least once each with a C, S or H. At that rate, it seemed inevitable that Raven would eventually get her turn. The thing that the boys didn't know though, was who Raven was going to ask for. The rest of the girls were somewhat open with their feelings for their crushes, even before the game. Raven on the other hand, tended to keep more hidden than she revealed.

When they reached the doors to the common room, Jinx shoved her inside, the rest of the girls melting into the shadows of the hallway to observe. As soon as she was in the boys' line of sight, they looked at her expectantly to see who she would ask for. By now they had determined the nature of the game the girls were playing and were curious to see which one of them each girl liked.

Thus far, the only boys who hadn't been asked for were the Titans East boys and Beast Boy. To make it less embarrassing, Raven could always just ask for Aqualad and save herself from real rejection. After all, both she and Starfire had shown interest upon first meeting him. It would come as less of a shock and still protect her feelings and keep them hidden. On the other hand, the girls in the hallway would never accept it and reveal her anyway. That meant Raven would have to do this for real.

She tried to prevent her eyes from drifting down to her feet like an embarrassed school girl. "Can I borrow Beast Boy for a second?" She did her best to keep the nervous shake out of her voice, but was afraid it slipped out anyway.

Speedy and Aqualad elbowed the green teen in the sides, urging him to "go get some", and Robin clapped him on the shoulder as he passed by. Cyborg actually directed a smile at Raven and gave her a thumbs up, helping to ease her anxiety just a little.

As Beast Boy approached, Raven led him over to the corner of the common room. It wasn't quite out of earshot of either the group of boys or girls, but it did offer them some privacy. When they stopped, Beast Boy looked at her questioningly.

She sighed before beginning. "I'm guessing by now that you already know why I'm here. Starfire roped me into playing this game with the other girls and I ended up with a C."

Beast Boy's face contorted into an expression of confusion. "And a C means. . ?"

Raven felt extremely vulnerable without her cloak. By now, she would have pulled up the cowl to hide her burning cheeks. She was actually surprised that her powers hadn't lashed out yet. Usually when she felt any emotion this strongly, the lightbulbs tended to need replacing in the Tower.

"Confess," she eventually answered. "Beast Boy, Garfield, I have romantic feelings for you, although I'm sure you've already guessed that."

Beast Boy chuckled. "I kind of figured, but I am surprised."

Raven found that she could no longer direct her line of sight at the green boy's face. He hadn't flat out rejected her, but he hadn't reciprocated her feelings either.

"Okay, well. . ." Raven awkwardly tried to shuffle around Beast Boy to get back to the hallway, but he halted her, grabbing onto her wrist.

"Would you have told me if it weren't for the game?"

Raven honestly didn't know how to answer the question. It had been two years since the defeat of the Brotherhood of Evil, which meant that Raven had been crushing on the shapeshifter for two years now and hadn't told him. Without the game, she likely would have kept those feelings hidden, but Beast Boy didn't need to know that.

"I don't know, Beast Boy," she ended up saying.

The green boy brought a hand up to his neck, rubbing the back of it. Raven recognized it as one of his nervous tells.

"Well," he said, "I appreciate you being honest with me. And if it's any consolation-" Suddenly the shapeshifter lunged forward and placed a kiss on Raven's lips. It wasn't long or passionate, but it did get his message across even before he said the words. "I actually kind of have romantic feelings for you too."

His cheeks bloomed with puce and Raven was sure her own were sporting a nice cherry. Shyly she gave him a quick hug and then hurriedly made her exit out into the hallway to join the other girls. As the doors to the common room were closing behind her, she could hear wolf whistles and cheers coming from the other boys, congratulating Beast Boy. Just as quickly, the other girls converged on her.

"Yeah girl!" Bee shouted. "Three for one! C, S and an H!"

Starfire enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug. "Oh Raven! This is wonderful!"

And Raven had to admit, now that she had gotten the hard part out of the way, it really was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next week: Realization.


	14. Realization: Day 7 (2015)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Beast Boy has come to a life-changing realization.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Ok, so maaaajor apology for it taking me this long to update. I fully did not intend on leaving you guys with a four month hiatus. I promise I did not abandon this fic, nor will I ever abandon it in the future. I’ve been dealing with a lot in my personal life lately and have been trying to get that back on track, so I haven’t exactly had time to update til now. I promise though that I’m going to try to make an effort to get back to the weekly updates I’d been giving y’all before. I’m just gonna ask that you guys’ll be willing to work with me on that. 
> 
> Anywho, I do want to give a huge shoutout to those of you who have been following my stories. It warms my heart to see that there are actually people out there willing to read the stuff that I write. And I love when you guys leave comments! Please continue to do so! I love hearing what y’all have to say about my writing and this fandom in general. And I do try to respond to all of the comments that I get, even if they are on my old works, so I’ll definitely get back to you if you leave one! 
> 
> As always, hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

"I think I want to marry Raven."

Cyborg paused in the creation of his towering five meat sub. Nightwing stopped with a spoonful of puréed carrots half-way to his daughter's mouth.

"Wow Gar, that's a pretty serious thing to say out of the blue like that," Cyborg said.

Beast Boy was sitting at the kitchen table, shuffling some black olives around his plate. He'd had pizza earlier, and with nothing else to do now that he'd finished it, he'd had some time to think. Said thoughts revolved around his amazing girlfriend of five years, who he was now considering making his fiancé.

"I'm serious, Vic," he said eventually. "I've been thinking about it for awhile, and I want to spend the rest of my life with her."

Dick used a napkin to clean the food from his daughter's chin as he spoke. "I think that's a plausible next step, Gar. You and Raven have been going strong for five years now. We're all older than we were ten years ago. Getting married and settling down isn't completely out of the question. Kori and I have been married for two years now, and we've got Mar'i." The black-haired man hoisted his equally black-haired child out of her high chair, the baby gurgling and clapping as she was encased in her father's arms.

Beast Boy turned around in his chair to face the other two men in the kitchen. He smiled at Dick's baby, who was now at six months and had just started eating solids. She was still a bit picky, and preferred Starfire feeding her over Nightwing, but nonetheless, Gar thought she was amazing. Seeing his two best friends happily married and with a baby girl only made Garfield want that more and more for himself and Raven. He would love to be married to the girl of his dreams and start a family with her. He could imagine it; a little girl with his green skin and eyes, and Raven's violet hair, chasing Mar'i around the Tower, and Raven, sitting on the couch bouncing a little boy with Gar's green skin and verdant hair, and Raven's beautiful amethyst eyes. 

"I need some advice," Beast Boy admitted. "How did you propose to Star?" He directed the question at Dick.

In all honesty, Garfield hadn't given that aspect of it a lot of thought. He knew he wanted to marry Raven, but the steps to get there were daunting. He needed to talk to someone who had already done it, and done it successfully.

"Well," Nightwing swung the green-eyed infant to his hip, jutting it out to support his daughter as he leaned the other against the counter. "The main thing was finding her a ring. I probably spent three months and went into at least fifty different jewelry stores to find the perfect one." Dick inspected his own wedding band: simple silver, studded with a row of white diamonds.

Gar had seen Starfire's ring, and indeed it seemed as though Nightwing had found just the right one. Kori's ring was a twisted band of gold, set with a huge green emerald. The color almost exactly matched her eyes.

"The proposal itself is a little nerve-wracking, but now that I've done my vows, looking back on it, proposing was just a drop in the bucket. I ended up taking Kori out to eat at our favorite restaurant and then to the science center. She's always talking about how much she misses Tamaran, so I rented out the holotheatre and found Tamaran's star system. I proposed to her under the Tamaranian night sky." Dick smiled wistfully at the memory.

"Wow," Beast Boy sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know if I'm going to be able to live up to something like that."

Cyborg, who had been silent up until that moment, walked over to Garfield and clapped him on the shoulder. "It's not as scary as you're making it out to be." Vic himself had been engaged to Bumblebee for eight months now. Their wedding was coming up soon. "When I proposed to Karen, it was just after we'd gotten out of battle. It was on that trip I took back to Titans East HQ. We'd just finished fighting Andre le Blanc (honestly, the dude's as bad as Dr. Light)," he mumbled as a side note, "and we were all in pretty good spirits. As soon as we were done fighting, Karen kissed me, and then I knew it was the right time. I got down on one knee right there."

Dick nodded in agreement. "It's all up to you Beast Boy. You'll know how to propose when the time is right."

Beast Boy hummed in contemplation. It wasn't exactly the advice he'd been looking for, but if either of his friends knew what they were talking about, then Gar wouldn't worry. The first thing he had to do was find Raven a ring.

He stood up from his chair, walking over to the sink and dumping his empty plate before speaking. "I'm gonna go out on the town for a little while. Is there anything you dudes need while I'm out?"

Nightwing shook his head, bouncing Mar'i on his hip and making the little girl coo. Vic gave a "nah" and returned to his five meat sub.

With that, Beast Boy waved and headed toward the elevator to set out on the town in search of a ring for his Raven.

* * *

 

 

 

"Hey, Rae," Beast Boy rapped on his girlfriend's door, waiting for her to answer. After a few minutes with no response, he punched in the override and the door slid open, revealing a dark, empty room.

He wandered inside, going over to Raven's vanity, as was his plan. He wanted to talk to Raven's emotions. They were all different aspects of the woman he loved, and if he wanted to propose to Raven, they were a good place to start.

Other than the time he and Cyborg had accidentally entered Raven's mind using her meditation mirror years ago, he hadn't been back. He'd asked, but Raven had always been wishy-washy about giving him an answer.

With a gulp, he picked up the hand-mirror and peered into it. Like many years ago, the red and black claw emerged from the face of the mirror and grabbed him, pulling him in. He fell into the spiraling abyss, landing on his backside once he came in contact with the ground.

Groaning, he sat up and rubbed his head, familiarizing himself with the rocky terrain. Like last time, he had landed on a floating grey island, craggy rock arches jutting up along the path in the distance. Also in the distance was a spec of yellow, steadily moving closer.

"Raven?" Gar called, hoping that the spec was one of his girlfriend's many emoticlones. From what she'd told him, there were eight in total, and he'd only met four the last time he was here. Happy wore a pink cloak, Timid wore a gray cloak, Brave green and Rage was red. He had yet to meet any of his girlfriend's personalities in yellow, and was looking forward to seeing who it would be.

As she approached, Garfield could begin to make out her features and was surprised to see this emoticlone wearing glasses in addition to the new cloak color. She also had a huge book in hand and was avidly reading as she walked along, haphazardly looking up from the page every few seconds to gage where she was walking.

When she reached him, the yellow-clad Raven snapped her book closed and gave him an appraising stare. "Garfield," she addressed him.

The green man stepped forward to give Raven a hug, but the emotion's hands bumped into his chest, palms pressing against him, keeping him at a distance before he could wrap his arms around her. "No hugs," she said.

"Oh, okay." Beast Boy backed up, giving the emoticlone some space. "So, which one are you?" He asked, curious to see which aspect of Raven was refusing his hugs.

"I'm Raven," the emotion said, "but I know you were referring to the aspect of our personality that I encompass. I suppose you could refer to me as Knowledge, to make things easier."

"Knowledge, huh?" Beast Boy looked at the emoticlone closely. "What's with the glasses? I didn't know Raven needed them."

The yellow Raven shook her head. "I don't. This is just Raven's perception of me. Her schema of intelligence consists of wearing glasses, so I wear glasses."

Beast Boy had to admit, he'd only understood about half of what the emotion had told him, but he did now understand why she had refused his affection. It just wasn't in her programming.

"On a different note, Garfield, I would like to know why you're here."

Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck nervously. Reaching into his pocket, he procured a simple silver band, set with a single yellow-tinted diamond. When he'd gone ring shopping, he'd bought nine in total: one for each of Raven's emotions, and one for Raven herself. He'd come up with the idea of proposing to each of Raven's emotions separately, in part to get some practice before proposing to the real Raven, and secondly because all of Raven's emoticlones were parts of her and he wanted to emphasize the fact that he loved all of Raven, and not just certain parts.

The eight rings he'd bought for Raven's emotions were all the same: silver bands with a single diamond. The only difference was the tint of the diamonds. He'd picked the colors based on what he could remember of Raven's emotions the last time he'd been in her head. Although he'd only met and talked to Happy (pink), Timid (gray) and Brave (green), Garfield knew that Rage wore a red cloak, and he'd seen flashes of orange, yellow, purple and brown when Raven had merged with all of the entities of her personality to defeat the manifestation of her father.

Pinching the ring with the yellow stone between his thumb and index finger, Beast Boy got down on his knee, smiling up at the yellow-clad emotion. "Raven- Knowledge, the reason I'm here is because I want to propose to you. . . Well," he chuckled nervously, "All of Raven's emotions actually."

The emoticlone blinked back at him owlishly, eyes magnified about three sizes behind her glasses.

"I love Raven. Every single part of her, so I figured the only way to properly propose would be to ask all of her emotions first, because you are all parts of her, and I love every one of you." He paused a moment, reaching forward to take the emotion's hand into his own. "Knowledge, the reason I love you is because you're so incredibly brilliant. You always have the answers to questions no one knows how to resolve and you're always there to help me out. You put up with me, even though we both know you far exceed me in intelligence and I know that if I didn't have you- if I didn't have this part of Raven in my life- there would be a lot of things I still wouldn't know and my awareness would be nowhere close to where it is today. So please Knowledge, will you marry me?"

The emoticlone was blushing profusely and had the hood of her yellow cloak pulled as far over her head as she could manage, hiding her spectacled eyes in shadow. Rapidly she nodded her head, allowing Gar to slip the ring onto her finger.

When he stood up again, Knowledge wrapped him in a quick hug, and then broke away again, blush deepening. To save the poor emotion any more embarrassment, Garfield asked her about the other emoticlones and where he could find them.

After clearing her throat and avoiding eye contact, the yellow-cloaked girl was able to say, "Air Freshener Land is that way." She pointed a finger towards the next stone arch in the distance.

Beast Boy laughed. "It's seriously called that?"

Knowledge rolled her eyes. "She started calling it that after you and Cyborg visited the first time. The name stuck."

"Aww," Beast Boy cooed, "She really does love me."

"Yes," Knowledge confirmed. "We all do. And Garfield," she grabbed him by the shoulder, "even though you and I are technically engaged," she said the word with some difficulty, "that won't stop Raven from getting angry that you're here. You went into her mind without asking and this is a very private place for all of us. She won't be happy with you."

Beast Boy nodded. "I know, but this is important. I need to find the other emotions before Raven comes in here to pull me out."

Knowledge nodded and waved him off down the path. As he made his way towards the arch, the emotion couldn't help admiring the ring he had given her.

* * *

 

As soon as Garfield entered the realm of Air Freshener Land, a blur of pink immediately barreled into him, sending both him and Happy to the ground. The emoticlone's face hovered an inch above his, lips curved into a huge smile. "BB!" She shouted, excitedly.

"Hey, Happy," Gar managed to wheeze out. He carefully tried to inch his way out from under the zealous emoticlone, but for only a figment of Raven's imagination, the girl carried all the weight of a real person.

"Rave, you're crushing me," Beast Boy eventually said, giving up his efforts.

"Oh!" The pink-clad girl rolled off of the green man, giggling as she did so.

When they were both up on their feet, the emoticlone gave him a fierce hug before pulling away slightly, looking up at him with a huge grin.

"I missed you since last time. You should come visit me more often! It gets lonely with only myself for company."

Beast Boy chuckled. "I'd have to talk to Raven about that, but I promise if she says yes, I'll come see you again."

Happy squealed and spun around in a circle, causing her cloak to billow out around her legs. "So Gar, why are you here? I know it isn't just so you can come tell me your amazing jokes."

"Well," Garfield knelt down to the ground, pulling the ring with the pink diamond on it from his pocket. "Happy, I love your laugh and your smile and your hugs. I live to make Raven happy and it's always amazing when I'm able to get you to show up and know that Raven's enjoying herself. Don't tell the others," Beast Boy lowered his voice slightly, "but I think you're my favorite. I want to be able to be the cause of Raven's happiness for the rest of her life, so I'm going to ask: Happy, will you marry me?"

The joyous girl launched herself at him, knocking them both to the ground once more. "Well duh!" She laughed. "It's about time you asked! We've only been waiting like a year!" She offered her hand to him so that Gar could slide the ring onto her finger. As they sat up, Happy planted a quick peck on his lips.

"Raven's been waiting for me to propose to her for a year?" He'd had no idea.

"Yeah. We thought that once Dick and Kori had gotten married and Vic proposed to Karen, you would get the clue, but we decided to be patient and wait for you to come to the realization yourself."

Beast Boy contemplated the information he'd just received. "You sure Knowledge really led me to Happy? Are you gonna pull off the pink cloak and really be Knowledge still?"

The emoticlone giggled. "Wisdom's words actually! And yeah, who else besides Happy could be this awesome?" The girl held out her right fist for bumping.

Gar didn't want to leave her hanging so he indulged her. "Speaking of Wisdom," he changed the subject, "Do you know where I can find her?"

Spreading her arms in airplane-mode, Happy took off. "Come on!" She called, "I'll show you!"

Gar ran to keep up, following the pink-cloaked Raven down the path to the next stone arch. When they reached it, Raven said, "Rude is just through here. Wisdom's on the other side through Orange's domain."

"Thanks, Happy," Gar said. He turned and gave the pink emotion a hug.

As he entered under the arch to Rude's domain, Happy waved at him, the diamond on her finger sparkling.

* * *

 

Rude's domain looked exactly like an oversized, messier version of the common room in Titans Tower. As Gar surveyed his surroundings, he noticed neglected take-out containers and pizza boxes scattered about the floor, and several discarded orange cloaks, rumpled and covered in various stains, draped over the back of the couch. Lying on the body of the couch was Raven herself, snoring loudly, hair matted and cloak wrinkled.

Hesitantly, Gar reached out and jostled the girl's shoulder. He had to admit, seeing this version of his girlfriend was a bit shocking. Raven was nothing if not a neat freak, and she was always put together, unlike this version, which looked as if she had spent the whole last month in that exact same position on the couch without moving.

"Raven?" He bumped the emoticlone's shoulder again, startling her awake with a loud snort.

"For fuck's sake! I'm up! Ugh, it's the ass-crack of dawn! What do you want?"

Beast Boy was surprised to hear such crass language from her, being that she was usually much more eloquent in her use of vocabulary. Additionally, Raven tended to be a morning person, and Gar knew for a fact that it had already been past noon when he'd entered the mirror, meaning that it was not "the ass-crack of dawn" as the emoticlone claimed.

Thus far, the emotion was living up to her namesake. When Happy had told him about going to see Rude, he hadn't believed her. No way did Raven have an imaginary manifestation of Rudeness. But lo-and-behold, here the orange-cloaked emotion was.

"Rude," Garfield wanted to cut to the chase with this one. He had liked all of Raven's other emotions that he had met thus far, but Rude was proving to be a little much. He was just lucky that Raven rarely allowed Rude to show her face out in the real world.

"I'm here because I wanted to ask you a question." He pulled the third ring from his trousers; this one with an orange gem on the top. "I'm proposing to all of Raven's emotions. I wanted to know if you would marry me?"

The emotion stuck a finger in her ear, contemplating the offer. After a moment, she removed the finger again, wiping it on her cloak before shrugging. "What the hell, sure, I'll marry you Beast Boy." Reaching forward, the emotion snatched the ring from the green man's hand. She regarded it before slipping it on her finger. "It's not bad," she commented.

The changeling sighed in relief. He didn't want to spend anymore time in Rude's domain than he had to. He loved every part of Raven, he truly did, but some parts were definitely harder to love than others.

While the orange-clad emoticlone was distracted by the ring, Garfield made a quick getaway to the next arch, leaving the stench of moldy food and soiled uniforms behind.

* * *

The next section of Raven's mind was actually quite beautiful compared to the dump of Rude's domain.

Grassy green hills rolled off into the distance, a gentle breeze causing the blades to blow, tickling Gar's ankles. Wildflowers sprung up randomly, dots of pink, blue, yellow and purple decorating the landscape. On one of the closer hills loomed a huge willow tree, shading the cloaked figure meditating beneath its branches. As Gar approached the hill, the brown-clad Raven acknowledged him.

"Garfield," she greeted, her voice as soft as the breeze.

"Wisdom?" Beast Boy guessed. He plopped down in the grass beside the emotion.

"That would be correct." Raven said. She quietly pulled down the hood of her cloak, revealing her face. Her short, purple hair swayed as the breeze caught it, sending the locks tumbling against her cheeks before she reached up with a pale hand to tuck the strands behind her ear.

"So," Gar said, trying not to get distracted by what the emotion was doing, "I suppose you're wondering why I'm here."

"I was curious," Wisdom admitted, "However, I figured it would be counterproductive to ask, rather than waiting for you to tell me yourself."

Beast Boy smiled. So this was the part of Raven where all of the helpful advice came from. He valued this part of his girlfriend, and without Wisdom, Garfield knew that he definitely would have gotten lost in complicated situations more often than he would have liked to admit.

"Well," he eventually said, "I'm here to ask you something important." He produced a ring with a chocolate-colored diamond on the top as he dropped down to one knee. "Wisdom, I highly value all of your advice and I'm glad you're a part of Raven, because without you, I'd be lost. I especially have to thank you for helping me through the whole Beast fiasco back when we were teens. I was so confused and angry with myself because I thought I'd hurt you. Knowing that I hadn't and having you of all people guide me through that ordeal- Raven- Wisdom, I can't thank you enough for that. I hope that in the future, you'll continue to give me good advice, and in return, I hope I can do the same for you. Speaking of the future. . . Wisdom, will you marry me?" Beast Boy took a breath, presenting the ring to the emotion with a smile.

The brown-clad Raven took a few moments to answer, setting the green man's nerves on edge. Even though three emotions had already agreed to marry him, was it possible for an aspect of Raven's personality to disagree with the others?

Eventually, Wisdom held her hand out to Beast Boy. "I believe it would be wise to marry you, Garfield. Yes."

Sighing with relief, Garfield slipped the ring onto the emoticlone's finger. She smiled at him as he stood up.

"I assume you are off to find another one of Raven's emotions?"

Beast Boy nodded. "You mind guiding me?"

Wisdom stood and pointed across the landscape. On one of the hills in the distance, the next arch leading into another emoticlone's domain laid. "You can find Brave through there," Wisdom said.

Gar smiled. "Thanks, Rae." He took off in the direction the emotion had pointed to, leaving the brown-cloaked woman behind, looking fondly down at the ring signifying her future with him.

* * *

 

Gar had to admit he had been expecting it, but was ill-prepared when the event actually came to pass. As soon as he stepped into Brave's domain, he was met with a tackle to the ground and a forearm to his throat.

"Gotcha, B!" The emotion enthused.

"Hey, Brave," Gar groaned out.

Slowly the green-cloaked girl crawled off of him, offering him a hand up. "So," she drawled, "what's up? I know you didn't make a trip here just to see lil' ol' me."

Beast Boy dusted himself off. "Actually, I kinda did," he said.

"Really?" Raven sounded skeptical. "You risked breaking into Raven's room and her mind just so you could tussle with me? Why don't I believe you?"

Beast Boy chuckled. "I'm not here to fight you, Brave. I just wanted to talk."

The emotion rolled her eyes. "Booooring!" She began to walk off, leaving Garfield behind.

"Hey! Wait!" He called. "I'll fight you, but only on one condition."

Brave turned toward him with an eyebrow raised. "Mmm? And what is that?"

Beast Boy thought for a second. "If I win, you agree to hear me out."

Brave nodded. "And if I win?"

Gar shrugged.

Raven thought a moment before a devious smirk morphed her lips in an upward curve. "If I win, you have to tell Cyborg that I kicked your butt, deal?"

Beast Boy groaned, but shook on it anyway. "If I lose, you know Cy's never gonna let me hear the end of it."

Raven's smirk widened. "I suggest you don't lose then." She took up a fighting stance and waited for Garfield to do the same before throwing the first punch.

He dodged it easily, and threw a punch of his own. Unfortunately, Brave also dodged. She kicked at him and Gar was forced to go on the defensive as she threw punch after punch at him. She kept coming, backing him up further and further, and all Gar could do was hold up his forearms to block the onslaught aimed at his face.

Eventually, the emotion went in for the killing blow, seeing as she had the advantage. Gar had stood no chance. With a jab below the belt, he was on the ground, groaning, hands covering his crotch.

"You know hitting below the belt's against the rules," Gar groaned out, rocking slightly in pain.

"Hey," the emotion said uncaringly, "we never established those rules. Therefore, I was within bounds during this fight."

"Do you want to have kids in the future?" Beast Boy asked incredulously, voice still a few octaves higher than normal.

It seemed his words took the emotion aback regardless. "Kids?" Brave repeated, voice one part confusion, one part awed.

"Yes, Brave. I want to marry you and start a family with you. But if you hit me there again, you're going to put the thing that actually makes having babies possible, out of commission." Gar managed to roll onto his hands and knees, standing slowly, and then immediately returned a hand back to protect his groin.

"You want to marry me?" Brave still seemed to be in awe.

Instead of giving her a verbal response, Beast Boy knelt down on one knee and produced the ring from his pocket. When he met the emotion's eyes, Brave's seemed to be tearing up a little.

She took a step forward and swung a fist at Garfield, hitting him in the shoulder. "You're so stupid!" She laughed. "Do you have any idea how long we've been waiting for this?" She held her hand out, and the green man wincingly slid the ring onto her finger.

Garfield brought his hand up to rub at his new injury, temporarily forgetting about his other pain downstairs. "Damn Rae, you need to stop hitting me," he laughed.

"Sorry," the emotion said. "I'll try not to punch anyone while wearing this." She held her hand out to inspect the gleaming green diamond protruding from the silver band.

Gar laughed again. "Yeah, I don't think people will appreciate diamond-shaped imprints on their faces."

Brave returned the grin. "You should get on your way, Green Bean. You know where to find Timid."

Gar cast his gaze into the distance where the next stone arch laid. As he began making his way toward it, he could catch Brave's fists swinging in his peripheral vision as she attacked practice dummies, the diamond on her finger flashing each time she swung.

* * *

 

"Timid, wait!" Gar's voice echoed off the tall grey walls of the maze as he struggled to catch up with the fleeing emotion.

He knew that if he used his powers to try to escape the maze that he'd get a nasty shock, but there was no rule against using them to catch up with Raven's more flaky side. A cheetah was better suited to a chase than his own two human legs.

As soon as he'd caught up to her, he blocked her path, preventing the emotion from running from him again. He switched back to human form, so as to not intimidate her, and then began with his proposal.

"Timid, please, I only want to talk to you. You can trust me. I've been dating Raven for five years now. You know that." Beast Boy took a step forward, causing the gray-cloaked emotion to skitter back half a step. She had a bright red blush on her pale cheeks, only somewhat hidden by the hood that was pulled over her head.

"Timid," Gar said again, in a soft voice. He approached her slowly, gently taking her hand between his once he was close enough. "I love you. You don't have to run from me."

Timid tucked her head down towards her chest and mumbled out, "I'm sorry. You probably don't want to hold my hand right now. It's clammy and-"

Gar cut her off. "Rae, after all this time, do you really think that there's any reason I wouldn't want to hold your hand?"

The emotion looked up at him, unsure. Gar gave her a smile in return.

"I don't want to scare you," Beast Boy said, making sure that he had eye-contact with her. "But I have a big question to ask you."

At her look of fright, Garfield gripped her hand tighter to prevent her from bolting. Using his thumb, he gently traced the backs of her knuckles, and kept the smile plastered on his lips, despite his own nervousness over the whole ordeal.

"It's okay if you don't know the answer right now. All I'm asking is that you'll try. You can do that for me, right?"

Shyly, the emoticlone looked up and gave a quick nod of her head.

Having her permission, Gar let out a calming exhale and then fell down to one knee, using one hand to pull the ring from his pocket, maintaining hold of her hand with the other.

"Timid- Raven, I love you.I know that you're only a piece of Raven, Timid, but I love you so much. I love when I can comfort you and make you happy, and I know that Raven doesn't always like to acknowledge you, but I'd like to think that I've gotten to know you pretty well."

Timid's face was covered in a blush again, but there was also a small smile gracing her lips, which Garfield couldn't help thinking was adorable, and adorable wasn't usually a word he used to describe his girlfriend. He brushed her knuckles again, and gave her a smile before continuing.

"What I'm trying to say here, is that you're really very important to me. You're an important part of Raven, and without you, Raven wouldn't be the same woman that I love today. Without you, Raven wouldn't have had the hope to stand up to her father and prevent the end of the world when we were teens. You have to have fear of something to overcome it. Timid, you're the fear that allows Raven to be an amazing superhero, and without that part of her identity, we never would have met. So I'm thanking you, Timid, and I want to ask if you will marry me, because I can't live without Raven, and she can't live without you."

"I-I-" The emotion stuttered.

"It's okay to not know," Gar said. "But I want you to trust me. I don't need you to know whether things will work out, Timid," Beast Boy let out a laugh. "I don't even know whether things will work out. But I want you to trust that they will. Can you do that for me?"

The gray-cloaked girl hesitated, but nodded slowly, offering her hand so that Garfield could slide the ring onto her finger. The gray diamond twinkled back as Timid held it up to inspect.

"G-Garfield?" She stuttered, lowering her hand, "Thank you."

Beast Boy quirked an eyebrow upwards. "You don't have to thank me for loving you." He leaned in and gave the emoticlone a peck on the cheek, causing the shy girl to squeak in surprise.

"I'll see you again soon, okay?" He pulled away and turned, searching the landscape for the next arch.

His sensitive ears managed to catch her quiet, "Okay," as he took off down the path towards the next emotion's domain.

* * *

 

Gar had to admit, Rage's region of Raven's mindscape was not exactly what he had been expecting. It was definitely a lot worse.

First off, it was dark, which meant that Gar could barely see five feet in front of himself. Secondly, there were things buzzing through the air, and if Gar knew his animals, which he did, he would wager it was a swarm of locusts. As he walked further into Rage's domain, he felt his skin beginning to itch with sores, and if he wasn't mistaken, and he really hoped he was, there were flies crawling over his skin, and tinier bugs in his hair, which could only be lice. Gar thought he was going to be sick.

He clutched his stomach as he continued on, trying not to retch. He had to hand it to his girlfriend; she had quite an active imagination.

He thought he could see streaks of fire in the sky. Or was that HAIL THE SIZE OF BOWLING BALLS?! Beast Boy ducked and ran for cover behind a large rock protruding from the barren dirt landscape. Since he had set foot in Rage's domain, it was nothing but dirt and sand; a flat valley, bowled in on all sides by towering, craggy cliffs. Running along one side of the valley was a river, which would have been a relief, and Gar definitely would have taken a drink from it, had the 'water' not been red. Despite how unnerving and frankly disgusting it was, Gar had been walking alongside the blood river because it was the lesser of the two evils.

The other evil? Dead cows, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, strewn across the dirt from left to right. That had already been enough to make Gar throw up, one step into Rage's territory. As a vegetarian, animal-rights activist, and as someone who could physically be any of those animals laying dead on the ground, it had been more than enough to turn Beast Boy's insides out.

So he'd been walking along the river. At least that way, the frogs diving in and out of the ruddy stream could help control the flies a little. Plus with the ferrous, metallic tang filling his nostrils and mouth, and tainting his tongue, Gar could almost ignore the scent of the decaying mammals' rotting flesh, littering the rest of the path.

"Rage!" Beast Boy called out weakly. It was taking a lot out of him to keep going. The red-cloaked emotion's 'home' was a nightmare come true. And unfortunately, from his knowledge, Garfield knew that the terror was only going to get worse. He had learned about the plagues in Sunday school when he was younger. First there was the blood-water- check; next the frogs- which were hopping over his feet and giving him the willies; lice- which were making his head itch like crazy; the flies- which, thankfully were being controlled by the frogs; the dead livestock- still not helping Gar's stomach; boils- which were probably the least of the problems; a thunderstorm of flaming hail- yep, still coming down (Gar was lucky his head was still on his shoulders); the locusts- damn, the buzzing was LOUD in his sensitive ears; and last but not least, the darkness to top everything off. Gar knew there were ten plagues, and thus far, he'd only counted nine.

"Where are the-?" Beast Boy felt the toe of his hightop kick something. Up somewhere on the cliff to his right an evil chuckle echoed. He really did not want to look down. But, curiosity killed the cat (which was likely somewhere amongst its fallen cow and pig brethren) and forced Gar to glance towards the dirt. The corpse lying across the rubber toe of his shoe had a distinctly human face. 

Retching, Garfield turned to the side and once again upchucked his inwards into the maroon river racing alongside him. The laugh grew louder as the figure responsible for the terrible grating sound scaled down the cliff-face, ever closer to the shapeshifter.

"Dead babies?" Four glowing red eyes stared back at Garfield from underneath an equally crimson-colored cloak.

Beast Boy gagged again and spit up a mouthful of bile into the stream.

Rage approached Gar and laid a hand on his shoulder. It took a lot of willpower, but he managed not to flinch. "Now dear boyfriend," the sharp nail of one of Rage's fingers traced the green man's nape, causing a shiver to tumble down his spine, "I know you didn't come here to endure the pain, which means that you must be desperate. From what I'm aware of, Raven doesn't even know you're here."

Gar shook his head. "Why plagues?" He managed to ask.

The anger-embodying emotion emitted her growling laugh again. "If I were you, I'd be lucky she chose the plagues rather than the trumpets."

"Revelation," Garfield murmured.

Rage cackled. "The four horsemen, falling stars, fiery beasts from the pits of Hell itself, eternal darkness."

Garfield shook his head. He needed to get out of Rage's domain. He didn't have time to waste discussing the Rapture with an envoy of the Anti-Christ herself.

"Rage," Beast Boy tried again. "Please, don't make this any more difficult for me. I know that's pretty much your M.O.- to make things difficult for people, but just this once, can you agree to just let this slide?"

"Hmmm. . ." The emoticlone hummed. "Suppose that depends on what's in it for me."

Garfield looked up into the emotion's four eyes, trying to do so unflinchingly. "Does an expensive ring," he dug the piece of jewelry from his pocket, "and the promise to be Raven's forever do it for you?"

The red-cloaked demoness brought a taloned finger to her chin. "I'll take the ring, and Garfield," she leaned in closer so that she could hiss into his ear, "I don't hate you as much as you think I do."

When she pulled away, Garfield was left blinking in confusion.

"The next arch is just before the ridge," the emoticlone gestured to a particularly large cliff-face about half a mile from where Gar was standing.

Sighing, Beast Boy began trudging forward again. From the cliff she had just scaled, Rage watched him go, the red diamond on her ring the only thing to reflect the few rays of light from the fiery hailstones streaking across the sky.

* * *

 

It was a relief to enter Love’s domain after having been in Rage’s for what seemed like forever. He’d felt like the plagues were killing him- they probably had been. Love’s region of Raven’s mindscape was definitely a lot more welcoming in comparison.

The landscape was almost exactly like the beach outside of Titans Tower. Being built on an island, the Tower had sand on all sides, which meant the Titans could have as many beach days as they wanted throughout the year. Like the real thing, the beach in Raven’s mind had soft white sand, blue waves gently lapping up onto the shore. Sitting by the edge of the water was Raven, or more accurately one of her emoticlones, lavender cloak spread out beneath her like a beach towel. She was wearing a modified version of her leotard, the sleeves cut off and neckline lowered to make it look like more of a one-piece bathing suit. Her feet were bare, pale toes digging into the damp sand by the shoreline.

“Hey, uh, Love, right?” Beast Boy greeted as he approached.

Instead of giving an answer, the emotion stood up and turned towards the green man, placing her palms on his chest before lifting herself up onto her toes and planting a kiss on his lips. “Hello, Garfield,” she whispered as she pulled away.

Beast Boy smiled, eyes glazed over slightly in a daze. “That’s quite the greeting.”

Love returned the smile. “Of course. I love you, Gar. You’re my boyfriend.”

The changeling shook his head slightly, trying to clear it. This version of Raven was quite literally making his heart simultaneously melt and beat a million miles a minute. She was sweet, affectionate, passionate, and if Gar had to guess, full of lust as well. Every time she moved, a certain part of her body caught Gar’s attention and the bathing suit was certainly not helping his rates of arousal.

“Raven,” Beast Boy addressed her, trying to focus on formulating sentences in his head rather than images from the last time he and Raven had been intimate. “I love you too. And because I love you so much, I wanted to ask you something.”

Garfield dug around in his pocket until he found the ring, and then fell down onto his knee. “Love- Raven, I love you more than I’m able to explain in words, but I’m going to try to do my best.”

The emoticlone’s eyes grew and a pink blush settled over her cheeks. The Raven doppelgänger had her hands clasped tightly together in front of her chest and a huge smile was gracing her lips. She was even leaning forward slightly, anticipating his next words.

“I love your smile, and I love your brains. I love your sense of sarcasm and the useful advice you offer me when I’m in a pinch. I love your fearlessness when we’re in battle, and I love when you get scared during horror movies so I can comfort you. Even though I don’t love fighting with you, I do love when we make up and make love. But most of all, I love loving you and the way you love me in return. Love, thank you for sticking by my side and for taking such good care of my heart, because it’s yours.” Beast Boy chuckled. “It has been. For five years.” He held the ring out slightly, allowing the emotion to see it fully. “Love, will you marry me?”

“Yes.”

Garfield blinked in shock. Though the voice was the same, it was not the Raven in front of him who had spoken. Standing a few feet beside her clone was the real Raven herself.

“Yes,” she repeated, stepping forward. “I’ll marry you, Garfield.”

Love’s gaze flicked between the two of them and the emoticlone smiled bright. She subtly slunk back into the background in favor of letting the real Raven have some time with her boyfriend.

The blue-cloaked woman stepped further forward and gently kissed the green man on the lips. When she pulled back, she held her hand out to him for the ring.

“Uh,” Garfield rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand nervously. “This one’s uh, actually not for you.” He gestured at Raven’s purple-cloaked double and beckoned her over.

“Oh,” Raven said. Garfield’s heart nearly broke at the disappointment he could hear in the undertones of her voice. He wanted to show Raven the real ring he had gotten her.

Love pranced over and held out her hand daintily, that way Gar could slip the ring with the purple diamond on it onto the digit. Once the ring was on, Love squealed, planted a huge kiss on Beast Boy’s lips and then skipped away down the beach, continuing to giggle excitedly as she went.

Garfield let out a sigh as soon as she was out of sight. He turned his jade orbs back to the real woman that he loved with all of his heart. “Raven Roth,” he began, unable to contain his fanged smile. He quickly reached into his pocket, hand coming out holding a velvet box. As he snapped it open, he fell down to one knee. “Will you marry me?”

Raven’s hands rose to her mouth to cover up a wet laugh when her violet eyes landed on the ring. It was a band of gold, inlaid with a single tear-shaped sapphire, tiny, circular rubies flanking it on either side, all the way around the rest of the band. Raven’s eyes had tears of joy pricking the corners.

Rapidly, she nodded her head. “Yes,” she laughed out, “for the second time, dummy, of course I’ll marry you.”

Garfield smiled larger than he ever had in his life. He sprung up and tackled Raven with a kiss, causing them both to tumble down into the soft, white sand below. He peppered her glowing pink cheeks with kisses, and grabbed her hand, sliding the ring onto it and lacing their fingers together as the sorceress continued to laugh in happiness.

“I love you, Raven.” He kissed her again on the lips.

“I love you too, Garfield.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I (hopefully) should have another chapter up next week. It’ll be the first for the 2016 prompts, so keep your eyes open for that!


	15. Lazy Day: Day 1 (2016)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes both heroes and villains need a break.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First prompt for 2016!

Raven sat on the common room couch, back leaning against the side of her boyfriend's chest as he dozed. She held a book in her hands, one that she had already read several times and was not paying much attention to. Instead, her focus was on the changeling next to her. He was breathing softly, head tilted back against the soft cushions of the couch, a small string of drool hanging from his lower lip. Raven ran one of her hands through his grassy locks, smiling slightly as he let out a quiet purr.

 

It had been a busy day for the team yesterday and all of its members were enjoying a day of downtime, sleeping or doing quiet activities in their rooms. They had gone on five missions; one against Cinderblock, one against Doctor Light, a run in with Control Freak, one involving a bridge collapse and pedestrians in danger, and a situation involving a bomb. Needless to say, the Titans were pooped.

 

Raven herself felt fine after a good night's rest, her magic automatically restoring itself after a few hours. That was the good thing about having powers. It left her spiritually and mentally drained, but her body was in top condition. She merely needed a few solid hours of meditation and she was back to feeling great.

 

Her boyfriend on the other hand was a different story. She knew that shifting really took it out of him and between the actual changes themselves and the energy expended in each form, he had to have burned at least several thousand calories. On top of that, the bomb situation had actually been more of a solo mission for him.

 

The bomb had been rigged so that it would explode if anyone tried to enter the building. It had tripwires attached to the doors and windows as well as along the floor, ceiling and walls. Robin, Starfire and Cyborg hadn't been able to enter the building for obvious reasons and there was a fear that Raven might accidentally set off one of the tripwires if she were to phase herself inside. Beast Boy had been their best bet. In the form of a fly, he had entered the building's vent system through a duct outside, which had luckily not been rigged to the bomb. Because of his small form, he had been able to avoid all of the tripwires and disarm the bomb with some aid from Cyborg via communicator.

 

He also had used both his stegosaurus and T-Rex forms in the bridge collapse and his blue whale against Cinderblock; his three largest forms. That, combined with the stress from the bomb situation made it no surprise he was so worn out.

 

As soon as they had returned back to the Tower after their last mission, Beast Boy had immediately turned to the fridge, polishing off two salads, a serving of meat-free spaghetti, four glasses of soy milk and a TLT (tofu, lettuce and tomato). After regaining back most of the calories he'd lost, the boy had crashed on the couch, out as soon as his head hit the cushions.

 

That had been at eleven the previous night. Raven glanced at the clock on the wall from her spot on the couch. It was now ten till two in the afternoon, which meant that Beast Boy had been sleeping for nearly fifteen straight hours. While uncommon, Raven couldn't blame him. His half-animal DNA gave him more energy than most people, but it also meant that he had to sleep more to regain back what he lost, and he'd expended a lot of energy the previous day.

 

Giving the sleeping boy a soft kiss, so as to not wake him, Raven stood from her spot on the couch to make herself some tea. She figured that the warm relaxing beverage would go perfectly with the quiet atmosphere. After all, when would the Tower ever be this calm again? Raven was going to enjoy it while it lasted.

 

As she took a step away from the sofa, Raven felt a pair of arms snake around her waist and pull her back down to the cushions.

 

"Stay with me," Beast Boy hummed, eyes still closed.

 

With a small blush, Raven once again resumed her position on the couch, Beast Boy cuddling up to her and nuzzling his head into the crook of her neck. She slowly ran her fingers through his hair, eliciting a soft vibrating purr from deep within his throat as always when she did this.

 

"Did you have a nice nap, Gar?" Raven shifted positions, moving Beast Boy so that his head rested in her lap and she could look at his face. She continued to run her hand through his hair while the green teen played with the slender pale fingers of Raven's other hand.

 

"Mmhmm," Beast Boy hummed, turning so that his face snuggled into her stomach.

 

"You've been sleeping for fifteen hours, you know," Raven said, offhandedly.

 

"Have I?" The green teenager seemed unsurprised by the news.

 

Raven rolled her eyes even though her boyfriend couldn't see it. Typical of him to shrug something like sleeping through half the day off so nonchalantly.

 

"Well, at least you're well rested." Raven sighed, leaning back against the cushions of the couch, dislodging the changeling's head from her lap.

 

Beast Boy sat up, giving a cavernous yawn as he did so. The teen stretched his arms above his head, then proceeded to scratch the back of his green head, mussing up his already skewed locks. He gave a second yawn, this one much larger than the last, before settling back against the cushions.

 

"Charming," Raven muttered sarcastically, wrinkling her nose at her boyfriend's lack of manners.

 

"Anytime Rae," the boy responded, giving her one of his trademark fanged grins.

 

The two sat in silence, Raven opting to return to her book while Beast Boy fiddled with a loose thread on his shirt. Since they were at the Tower and it had been a rather slow day today, (hey, even villains get tired sometimes) both the changeling and the empath had chosen to switch their uniforms for civvies. After all, who could stand wearing a tight spandex suit twenty-four seven when the comforts of normal clothing rested just at the fingertips? Even Robin, the boy with the ever-constant fear that he would be caught off guard by a surprise attack, wore civilian clothing around the Tower on slow days. The team had become comfortable enough around each other to wear their preferred style of clothing and forget the formalities of keeping up an alias and secret identity.

 

Beast Boy let out a bored groan, tugging the string and ripping it from the shirt, discarding it on the carpeted floor. He tossed his head back against the cushions behind him and let out a third open-mouthed yawn.

 

"I'm tired," he groaned. The boy shifted slightly, his head coming to rest against his girlfriend's shoulder and smacked his lips before settling into a more comfortable sleeping position.

 

Raven stopped reading, casting an incredulous look the shapeshifter's way.

 

"Beast Boy, you just slept for fifteen hours. How can you possibly still be tired?"

 

"Hey," he said, raising his head to look Raven in the eyes, "you try being a T-Rex, stegosaurus and blue whale in one day. It's a lotta work!"

 

Raven rolled her eyes. "You used your powers, big whoop." The sorceress picked up her book once again, pretending to pay attention to the words. In reality, she was waiting for her boyfriend's reaction. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she thought that the younger boy was rather cute when he pouted.

 

After hearing the comment, Beast Boy was fully awake and ready to start a debate with Raven over who's powers were more draining. He wanted to prove that his powers were more taxing (call it his ego) and therefore justified his very extensive nap. He rarely won arguments, even petty ones, against Raven and felt that now was his chance to prove that he too could be intelligent when he wanted to.

 

"Anyone can hover in place, wave their hands and chant words," the boy argued. "Shape shifting requires physical exertion."

 

Raven only scoffed at his reasoning, a whole arsenal of arguments filling her mind. "Well I suppose so, but telekinesis requires large mental and spiritual capacities as well as intense focus."

 

"At least your powers restore themselves. All you have to do is meditate. If I pull a muscle during a change or over-exert myself, I have to sleep it off. " The changeling raised his eyebrows, feeling that he had gotten her with this argument. "And it's not like you guys were much help with the bomb yesterday either," he muttered as an afterthought.

 

Raven quirked her own brow. "Did you want everyone to explode?" She challenged.

 

Beast Boy opened his mouth to retort, a finger pointed into the air to emphasize his point, but as soon as Raven spoke, the changeling deflated, his hand dropping and jaw hanging open, leaving him stumbling over his words. "I-well, uh. . . I think I like you better in one piece Rae-Rae. Plus a damsel as fine as yourself should never put herself in the path of danger." The green boy took her hand in his, lacing their fingers together as he turned his head, beginning to leave a trail of kisses along her exposed collarbone and neck.

 

Raven blushed, stealing her hand away from her boyfriend and gently swatting him away from her. "Stop it, you flirt."

 

"Hey," the changeling said, voice growing husky, "It's not flirting if it's true." He placed another line of kisses, these ones stronger than the last ones, along her jawline.

 

Raven felt her knees going weak and her blush growing hotter and redder. She immediately thanked Azar that the couch was under her to support her weight. Whenever her boyfriend toyed with her like this, she couldn't help swooning. His flirtatious behavior was her weak spot and he knew it.

 

He eventually worked his way to her lips, stealing a kiss from her before Raven pushed him away. Not that the empath minded too much. He could annoy her to no end sometimes with his constant onslaught of jokes and requests for attention, not to mention his cheesy pickup lines and constant flirting (though Raven had to admit, she was glad he only did it around her), but he also had moments of kindness and thoughtfulness and Raven knew that the changeling was a real sweetheart when he wanted to be. Though he was two years younger, Raven had to admit that they made a perfect couple; his younger age kept him from overpowering her and gave her equal say in the relationship, while Raven's hesitancy when it came to acts of intimacy prevented Beast Boy from feeling as though he had to meet some expectations he wasn't quite ready for. Their relationship was composed of built in checks and balances and neither had to worry about feeling awkward around the other.

 

Raven sighed as she leaned back against the cushions of the sofa, placing her book spine-up on the side table to her right. Now that Beast Boy was awake, it was unlikely that he would give her the silence needed to concentrate on the words. The changeling always had been one for attention, and now that they were dating, it seemed that he had set his sights particularly on the enchantress.

 

Since they had begun dating, Raven had noticed more often than before, the small similarities between her boyfriend's behavior and the animals he turned into. For example, Beast Boy loved having his ears rubbed, something Raven used to her advantage when need-be. It was his weakness and it was amazing what she could get out of him in exchange for promising to scratch behind his ears for a few minutes.

 

Along with that came the pleasure he took from having Raven run her hands through his hair. She didn't know why, but it was one of his favorite things. Whenever he was bored, or in a quieter mood than usual, he would come to her and lay his head in her lap, waiting for her to run her hands through his messy verdant locks as he relaxed. Whenever she did, she always smiled, hearing that reliable soft purr vibrate in his chest as he snuggled his face into her stomach or side. She would never tell him, but petting his hair was one of her favorite things as well. She loved eliciting that gentle rumble from him, knowing that she was responsible for causing him that sensation and loved the fact that the purr was unique to him and no one else. Beast Boy's purr was the equivalent of a lover's moan and Raven could never get tired of hearing it. 

 

Another thing she had taken notice of was his preference to cuddling rather than making out. Like most teenage boys, Raven had expected Beast Boy to be more driven by his hormones rather than his brain in a relationship. It had actually surprised her to discover that the roles were flipped, and she was the one who preferred spontaneous make out sessions whereas he was content to sit on the couch and snuggle with her, finding comfort in her embrace. And seeing as she had put her book down and divided all of her attention to him, that was exactly what he planned on doing.

 

He burrowed his way into Raven's embrace, nuzzling his head into the hollow of her neck and wrapping his arms lovingly around her torso. Raven smiled slightly as she felt her cheeks heat up and slowly dragged a hand down his spine, eliciting a soft contented mewl in response.

 

After a few strokes, Raven readjusted their positions so that the back of her head rested against the arm of the sofa and her legs stretched out in front of her, one on each side of the changeling. The younger boy's cheek rested on her stomach, eyes closed and arms still circling the empath's waist loosely. Raven continued to pet him, one hand running through the messy green locks on his head and the other gently massaging his back as he let out that deep vibrating purr of pleasure. He rubbed his nose against her belly, the purr growing louder as Raven scratched behind his ears and gently worked her way up to the points of them, eliciting a more human sounding groan as she found his sweet spot.

 

Raven smiled, relaxing as she listened to Beast Boy's constant hum and felt him nuzzling closer and deeper into her to be as close to her as possible. It was times like this when she realized just how much she loved him. He didn't need words to express how much he cared about her. The warm waves of affection and happiness wafting off of him were enough to tell how he felt. And whenever the empath sensed these feelings from him, they were enough to reassure her that she could love him back, the consequences from her powers be damned.

 

Sighing contently, Raven closed her eyes, continuing to stroke her boyfriend's green locks as she relaxed. After a few minutes, she could feel the green boy's breathing level out, the deep purr emanating from his throat diminishing to a soft rumble that resonated from his chest as he fell asleep.

 

"I love lazy days," Raven whispered, joining her boyfriend in slumber shortly after.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y’all enjoyed this one. Hopefully the next one’ll be up next week!


	16. Flu Season: Day 2 (2016)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Beast Boy gets sick, Raven has to play nurse.

Raven stood by hopelessly, watching as her boyfriend suffered from the harsh wet coughs that were tearing through his throat. How she wished she could simply lay her hands on him and drag out the nasty virus that had invaded his system with her powers. But unfortunately that wasn't an option, seeing as her healing abilities only applied to external wounds and minor aches.

 

As Beast Boy finished with the round of coughs that had seized him, Raven gently laid a hand on his chest and one on his back to help ease him down to the mattress of his bed from his upright position. The empath took a seat on the edge of the mattress after ensuring that her boyfriend was comfortable, beginning to run her fingers through the mess of sweaty, forest-green hair that adorned his head. The sick teenager gave a slight moan of contentment before slowly reopening his glassy, emerald orbs. Raven gave him a forced smile.

 

"Rae, don't give me that look. I'm fine," Beast Boy protested. His voice was scratchy and hoarse from all of the coughing he had done.

 

"Gar," the empath said placatingly.

 

Raven's hand paused its motion through his hair, moving down slightly to rest against his forehead. It was slightly sweaty, dampening the boy's bangs and causing them to stick to his paler-than-usual lime skin. Raven calmly leaned forward, reaching for the thermometer sitting on the nightstand to her left.

 

"Open," she commanded, holding the thermometer at Beast Boy's lips.

 

The changeling rolled his eyes, but complied with her orders, allowing Raven to take his temperature. Both waited patiently for the small device to get a reading, staring at each other through the silence. When the thermometer finally beeped, the empath took it from Beast Boy's mouth and merely shook her head as she read his temperature aloud.

 

"103.7."

 

Beast Boy shrugged his shoulders. "I've had worse."

 

Raven placed the thermometer back onto the nightstand, crossing her arms. "Garfield," she started.

 

"Raven," he whined back. The empath gave him a glare.

 

Beast Boy sighed as he took his girlfriend's hand into his own clammy one. "Rae, I'm fine. When I had Sakutia, my temperature was past a 107. The doctors were shocked that I survived. I should have died from brain damage. Since the disease is still in my system, it's keeping all of my white-blood cells busy. I'm always sick more often and longer than you guys. I'll get better in a few days. It's just the flu."

 

Raven sighed unhappily, taking her hand back from her boyfriend and once again running it through his green locks. "You've already been sick for two weeks Gar. Most people get over the flu in less than one."

 

As soon as she finished speaking, Beast Boy was racked with another coughing fit, bringing himself into an upright position as he tried to calm the sporadic seizing of his lungs. Raven could simply do no more than watch, letting a frown become evident across her features. Her heart hurt; she hated seeing her boyfriend so sick. She wanted to do everything she could to make him better.

 

As he continued to wheeze, Starfire appeared in the open doorway of the changeling's messy room. Turning to find a better position on the bed, Raven caught the alien's eyes with her own.

 

"Starfire," the empath called out. "Can you get the cough syrup please?" Starfire nodded her head before turning from the doorway and flying off towards the medicine cabinet.

 

By the time the Tamaranian had returned, Beast Boy's coughing fit had ended and Raven was trying to force the stubborn boy to lie back down. Starfire flew forward, handing the bottle and a spoon to the empath before waving to Beast Boy and once again exiting the room. With the Tamaranian gone, Raven took charge of the situation.

 

"Lie down, Gar," Raven grunted, pushing against her boyfriend's chest, trying to force him back down onto the mattress.

 

"I'm too hot," Beast Boy complained, ignoring the sorceress' persistent efforts.

 

Raven stopped her futile attempts and met the changeling's eyes. They were half-lidded with tiredness, the irises no longer the strong, vibrant jade she adored, but a dull, hazy chartreuse. His face and body were beaded with sweat, the white night-shirt he was wearing completely soaked through and sticking to his chest. His normally olive skin was a pale lime and he shook slightly, weak from only eating a small amount before throwing it back up. It was clear that he was completely miserable.

 

Giving him a small smile, Raven got up from the bed and ventured to the bathroom across the hall to retrieve a washcloth and bowl of cool water. By the time she had returned, all of the sheets from the bed had been kicked onto the already cluttered floor and her boyfriend had stripped down to just his boxers, the discarded nightshirt and plaid pajama bottoms added to the ever growing pile of laundry in the corner of the room. 

 

As Raven knelt by his bedside, Beast Boy gave her a small smile of gratitude. "Thanks, Rae," he said, voice still husky from the coughing.

 

The empath tried to suppress a blush. Between the shirtlessness and the voice (which was quite sexy with its low tone), she found her boyfriend rather attractive at the moment, even with all the signs of his sickness. It took her a moment to force it back down, but once the blush had finally left her cheeks, Raven set about preparing a spoon of the cough syrup Starfire had brought her, bowl and washcloth temporarily forgotten.

 

When she finally had the right amount measured out, she held the spoon out to the changeling. "Open," she commanded.

 

Beast Boy vigorously shook his head, clamping his mouth shut tight. No way was he going to take that nasty cherry flavored medication. That stuff tasted worse than Plasmus goo (Beast Boy knew because he'd had first hand experience).

 

"Open," the empath ordered again, trying to force the spoon into his mouth. Beast Boy continued to protest. Eventually Raven gave up.

 

"Fine Beast Boy, don't take it." She began to walk out of the room.

 

"Hey, Rae," the changeling called out, "Where are you going?"

 

Raven turned back towards him, a plan beginning to form in her mind. "Well, if you're not going to listen to me, there's really no reason for me to be here." She took another step towards the door.

 

"Rae, wait, I'm sick." The sorceress raised an eyebrow, pretending to contemplate the situation.

 

"Well," she drawled after a moment, "I suppose I could stay." She added just a hint of sultry to her voice. This time, Beast Boy arched an eyebrow.

 

Raven turned and slowly sashayed towards the bed, swinging her hips in a suggestive way that she knew would get her boyfriend's attention. As she reached him, she climbed on top of him, straddling his hips and pinning his arms to his sides with her knees. By this point, both of his eyebrows had disappeared within his sweaty hairline.

 

Raven leaned forward, tracing the fingers of her right hand up his chest as her mouth drew closer to Beast Boy's ear. She could feel the slight shiver go up his spine and then felt him tense as she slowly began to tease his right earlobe with her tongue.

 

"Rae," he gasped a little as his voice raised an octave, surprised by her actions.

 

Raven continued her tracing, running her fingernail in a trail in between his pectorals and down to his navel then tracing her way back up again as she lightly sucked his earlobe. He squirmed beneath her, trying to buck her off, but Raven held her position firmly on top of him.

 

"Rae," he pleaded, trying to turn his head away from her. His actions however, had been exactly what the empath was expecting.

 

Instead of allowing him to evade her lips, Raven gently began to nibble his earlobe between her teeth, forcing Beast Boy to shut his eyes and let out a groan. She had always known his ears were extra sensitive and loved using his weakness to her advantage.

 

As his lips parted to emit the sound of pleasure, Raven quickly grabbed the spoon full of cough syrup and shoved it between his open lips. The green teen's eyes immediately shot back open and he attempted to spit out the medicine, had it not been for Raven's hand clamped firmly over his lips. Given no choice, Beast Boy quickly swallowed the foul-tasting cough syrup, giving a grimace as he did so.

 

"Bleh," he complained, once the sorceress had removed her hand. "That wasn't fair."

 

Raven tweaked his nose with her finger. "All's fair in love and war, babe." As she began to get off of her boyfriend and return to her original position at the side of the bed, his arms wound around her waist, pulling her into a laying position beside him.

 

"Gar," she complained, "you're going to get me sick."

 

"All's fair in love and war, darling," he replied, kissing her sweetly on the lips.

 

Needless to say, when Raven woke up the next morning, she was lying in bed with her boyfriend, coughing along with him and silently cursing him for passing on the flu to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y’all enjoyed this one!

**Author's Note:**

> First prompt filled. I hope you guys enjoyed this oneshot. The second one will be up next Monday: Alone.


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